Black and White
by crissylover
Summary: 3 months after the SF, everything has finally returned to normal. They were finally able to lay back and enjoy their lives, until they met mysterious people who are after a girl. But one thing they don't know is that getting involved with her may lead their own lives to danger and maybe even world destruction... YohxAnna, RenxOC. First fanfic ever. Please R&R!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_ A small town is set on fire in the middle of the night. Terrifying cries of people and children are heard everywhere. Chaos descends upon the home of the poor humans. The color of the moon has turned blood as evil run down the streets._

_ "K-Kuro… s-stop it now… You can hear me, right?" a short brown-haired boy desperately walked toward a girl with long black hair, carrying a bloody sword on her right hand. The girl looked at him with her dark-red eyes, a look with intent to kill. But the boy was not taken aback._

_ The boy looked at the black-haired girl as a smile appeared on his face. "Kuro, stop it now. You don't have to put yourself into this mess. Let's just go back… and live normally… like we always do…" the boy said and stretched his hands out, waiting for the girl to approach and hug him._

_ He thought that his voice reached the girl's hearing, but not. The girl raised her sword and pointed it at the boy then charged at him in before he knew it. She thrusted the sword deep into his heart and the boy's blood ran down at the sharp blade. Blood ran down from his mouth too and his eyesight became blurry. He knew he was dying but… it was strange. Instead of despair, a smile of happiness formed on his face. Before the girl could pull the sword out, he held her hand that she used to hold the hilt._

_ He looked at the girl's eyes with tears running down to his cheek and pulled the girl to him and hugged her tight. The girl's eyes widen in shock as she felt something warm on her body. Then he put his mouth to her ears and whispered something, then he let go and slowly lied down on the ground, waiting for the darkness to wrap him._

_ The black-haired girl remained standing in front of the dead body of the brown-haired boy with shocked eyes. She dropped the sword and knelt on the ground. Then she passed out._

_ The black-haired girl slowly half-opened her eyelids, revealing her dark-red eyes. Her eyes widen in shock as she saw flames circling her around. She sat up and looked around her and, to her greatest horror, she saw a short brown-haired boy lying dead next to her. Tears flowed right from her eyes as she helplessly crawled towards the boy._

_ "S-Shiro! Wake up, Shiro! D-Don't die… don't leave me… alone…" she cried softly while shaking the boy's hand. Having no response, she cried out loud that her voice echoed throughout the entire town._

_ "S-Shiro… why…who did this… to you…?" the girl mumbled while burying her face on her dirty hands._

_ "You did it yourself, kid," a girl's voice came from behind her. She slowly turned her head to see who it was, and a long silver-haired girl stood before her, dressed in a silky white dress, wearing black sandals. Her bloody red eyes were smiling while looking at the black-haired girl. Shock was the right word to describe the girl's reaction, after seeing that… the silver-haired girl has the same face as hers, except for their hair and eyes._

_ After recovering from shock, her sadness switched into anger and glared at the silver-haired girl. "What do you mean… by I did it?" she asked straightly._

_ The girl in white smiled and nodded her head. "You don't know? You killed him…by yourself," she replied naturally._

_ "I don't believe you! I would never__—__" she stopped when she saw a sword right beside her, tainted in blood. She couldn't believe what she saw._

_ "The sword beside you proves that you murdered him," the girl said, not moving from her spot._

_ "N-No… th-that's… not true…" she murmured then cried again._

_ "Lately, while you were not yourself, he's been calling you Kuro. Why did he call you that? Outrageous," the white girl said and let out a small laugh._

_ "Wh-Why… you say? Because it's my name… It's my name!" she yelled at the girl._

_ "Your name?" the girl said as her smile disappeared. Then she closed her eyes and sighed. "That's not your name, kid."_

_ "What the hell are you talking about?! You don't even know me!_

_ "I know you… more than anyone else in the world," the white girl said with serious eyes._

_ "Wh-Who are you…?" she asked._

_ The white girl's smile came back and answered, "You may not understand it, but… I am you…"_

_ "Wh-What?" she asked confused._

_ "And from now on, it will be years before we meet again. Just remember what I told you… Eri," the girl said then 7 people passed through the flaming wall surrounding them. Then they all knelt down on one knee and bowed their heads before the silver-haired girl. She was even confused more._

_ "Then… goodbye…" they all said, including the silver-haired girl and they disappeared without a trace. The black-haired girl still remained on her spot, shocked and confused. Then she looked down on the ground and uttered a single word. "Eri…"_


	2. C1 Unexpected Meeting

**Chapter 1: Unexpected Meeting**

_**A/N: Hello, everyone! Chrissy here! This is my first ever fanfiction entitled Black and White, a Shaman King story with a new adventure with our old and new characters (OC) here! I actually made this story long time ago, 1 year actually but I was young back then and I didn't know a lot about Internet and finally, my mother taught me how to use it. **_

_**Okay, I'll shut up. Hope you enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: For a million years, I never own Shaman King. I can only sit and wish. T.T**_

"Faster!" a short blonde-haired girl yelled with her arms crossed, standing on a nearby tree.

"I… I can't do it anymore…" a brown-haired boy with headphones said while kneeling down on the ground, panting heavily.

"If you slack off, I will increase your training 10 times than usual," the girl warned.

"EEEHH!? But… I'm really tired now… Please spare me," he moaned then lied down on the ground.

The blonde girl just sighed and put her right hand on her waist. "Fine then. But… because you didn't finished it all today, you will be having a special training tomorrow, 10 times harder, like I said," she said and walked away.

"What…?" the boy moaned and sighed as he watched his 'fiancé' walking away. "Sheesh, Anna's so cruel…"

"I feel sorry for you, Master Yoh," his spirit came out from his sword and appeared beside him in his original form.

"But, nice work though," a certain short boy came to Yoh, carrying a towel.

Yoh sat up and his best friend, Morty, handed him the towel. "Thanks, Morty. Man, I just missed housework then she put me into a work of hell…" he said as he wiped the sweat from his face.

"Just like Anna always do," Morty added as he sat down beside Yoh.

Yoh just smiled and lied back on the ground, watching the clouds pass by slowly. "But, it's been a long time since I feel refreshed. Guess it was just right…"

"But to tell the truth, you actually didn't want it like this. Working like a slave, and train like a servant for her highness," Amidamaru said and smirked.

"Well, it'll all work out," Yoh replied as a grin appeared on his face.

"That's what you always say, Yoh," Morty cut in.

Yoh stood up and patted his knees. Then he looked at his friend and said, "I think I'm gonna take a short walk." He was about to take a step when Morty called him.

"Wait Yoh. If Anna finds out, she will—"

"Don't worry. I can take a break after training. Then I'm off!" Yoh waved his hand and walked away.

"Sheesh, just a while ago, he was all tired then suddenly, he became energetic," Morty said to himself while watching his friend.

It's been three months since the incident of the Grand Shaman Tournament happened. After that, Yoh and all of his friends went back to their homes, some didn't and hang out with the others. And nothing has been happening for now, or at least that's what they think.

Yoh strolled down the roadside with his hands on his pocket. He looked around him and a smile appeared on his face, seeing everything has gone to normal now.

"Asakura… Yoh, found you!" a voice said, coming from behind him. He turned around and freaked out when he saw a person flying straight toward him with feet in front. He immediately moved to his side and the person crashed on the ground few meters away from him.

"H-Huh?" Yoh said surprised as he saw a spiky dark-blue haired boy lying on the ground face first, wearing a blue sweater with white lines on its sleeves and knee-length black pants. He carefully walked to the boy. "Um… are you okay?"

The boy raised his head in a sudden, making him surprised. Then he raised his hands on the air and yelled, "Whoohoo! That was an awesome move!"

Yoh sweat-dropped in confusion as he found the boy rather weird…. and… familiar. "Um… excuse me?" he said then the boy looked at him with his black eyes. _He really looks…. familiar,_ Yoh thought.

Suddenly, the boy jumped to Yoh, creeping him out. Then the boy wrapped his arm on Yoh's neck like he's choking him and grinned at him. "Man, how come you'd always dodge my flying kick, huh?" he said laughing.

"W-Wait a sec… you're choking me!" Yoh yelled as he tried to release from his grasp.

"Huh? Oh sorry," the boy said and let him go.

Yoh looked at him with a bit of irritation and asked, "Who the heck are you?"

The boy sweated as he smiled at Yoh. "Who… you say? Argh! Don't tell me you forgot who I am, the man who always fly kick you!" he exclaimed while scratching his head in irritation.

"Fly… kick… me?" Yoh said then looked at the boy's face closely with one of his eyebrows raised. Then his recognition of the boy turned on. "Ah! Y-You're… A-A…" Yoh said pointing at the boy.

"A?" the boy said eagerly, waiting for Yoh's answer.

"Arcade?" Yoh exclaimed as he snapped his fingers.

The boy turned off and felt like something hard fell on his head, like the word 'Arcade' engraved on a brick. He grabbed Yoh's collar in irritation and shook him back and forth.

"Yoh, you really forgot who I am!? You idiot!"

"S-Stop shaking me, Acrein!" Yoh yelled.

The boy stopped shaking him and stared at Yoh. "That's it! You finally remember!"

Yoh whacked the boy's hands away from his collar and coughed. "Do you really have to harass me like that, you metal head?" Yoh said as he stood up straight.

"It's not metal head. It's Acrein… Yuroku!" the dark-blue haired boy exclaimed as he raised his index finger and middle finger, showing a 'peace' sign, with a grin.

"You really haven't change at all. Still the same. But, it's great to see you again," Yoh said as he returned his grin to him.

"Same to you. Look at you, still bringing your headphones. That's why I easily recognized you," Acrein said and the two burst out to laughter.

"Are you free today? Want to hang out with me for a while?" Yoh invited him.

"Nah. I've to go to a friend's place. Actually, I was on my way there then I found you. Too bad, we finally met after a long time," Acrein replied.

"That's okay. You can visit us at the Flame Inn whenever you like."

"Then I'm going!" Acrein said and went away while saluting to Yoh.

"What a coincidence to meet with him here. Well, gotta go too," Yoh said to himself with a smile and continued walking. Then he passed by a dark alley where he saw a man being bullied by three thugs. "My, my…" he whispered to himself.

One of the guys with a cigarette cornered the man to prevent him from escaping. Then he gave him a wide grin and showed him his palm. "Now, if you please, could you lend us some money?"

The man just trembled in fear and shook his head. "I can't give you what you want!" he yelled out.

"Huh? So you don't want to, huh?" the other one with piercings said.

"You've got guts to talk back to us, kid," the one with a spiky hairstyle added.

"If you don't want to, then we'll take it by force. But first, how about a warm-up!?" the guy with cigarette exclaimed and raised his fist and was about to punch the innocent man when Yoh jumped to the bad guy and gave him a punch on the face. The man flew backwards and loses consciousness.

"B-Boss!" the man with piercings exclaimed.

"Why you…" the other one growled and returned his attention to Yoh.

"You know, what you're doing is an act against the law. But I guess your kind doesn't even know about rules and laws, am I right?" Yoh said with a relaxed smile as he stood in front of the man who was bullied just a second ago.

"Shut your mouth, you damn brat!" one of them charged to Yoh and raised his fist when Yoh suddenly disappeared from his spot. "W-Where did he go?" Then the man felt someone held his wrist from behind. He looked back and saw Yoh holding his wrist.

"You're too… slow!" Yoh yelled and threw the man to the corner, hitting the other one who was lying there.

"Don't screw with us, kid!" the last one charged to Yoh with a metal pole and swung it sideward, but Yoh ducked before the pole would hit him.

"Using a weapon is not fair!" Yoh gave the man a straight upper-cut, making him fall on the ground with a grunt. He looked at the man who was harassed and the man was even scared more. Yoh picked up the briefcase on the ground and handed it to the man. "I think this is yours, mister."

"Uh, um, yes… T-Thank you very much, boy," the man said smiling nervously. "T-Thank you for your help, but I couldn't give you anything in return.

"No need for that. I'm fine," Yoh said with a smile.

"Well, I'm going now. Thanks again!" the man said and immediately ran away.

Yoh returned his attention to the delinquents then walked away. But before he could take the third step, someone grabbed his other foot. "What!?"

"Don't mess with us, brat!" the one with the metal pole said and threw the pole to Yoh.

"That's not fair!" Yoh exclaimed then he tilted his body to evade the flying object. His sight followed the flying pole and it went pass through a girl who's walking, almost hitting her. Then he fell to the ground.

"I told you… you shouldn't make fun of us…" the man said with an evil smile.

"You…" Yoh growled but was cut off when the girl from earlier joined their talk.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, recklessly throwing objects like that?" the girl said in an obviously pissed tone.

Yoh looked around and became dumbstruck when he saw that the girl was staring at him. She is wearing a red coat with white linings and a blue mini-skirt and she has two small, crystal round bells tied on her hair just above her right ear. She's wearing a pair of brown shoes and a pair of black knee-length socks. Her dark-red eyes were staring at Yoh like she's going to pierce him. And the wind blew through the alley, making her long black hair flew in rhythm with the wind.

_Oh man… it looks like she put the blame on me… _Yoh thought as he sweat-dropped nervously.

"Huh? Got a problem with that, little girl?" the man whose holding Yoh's foot said. Then the girl turned her sight to the man. Yoh took a 'slight' gulp as he saw the scary stare of the girl. She slowly walked near to the man.

"Yes. I have a problem with… that!" the girl said and kicked the man's face, making him flew backwards and crashed on the other two. Yoh's eyes followed the man. Then he heard the girl talked again. "Looks like improper guys like you need to be taught a lesson… once and for all…" Yoh looked at the girl and was surprised when he saw her holding a sword.

"A-A… sword?" Yoh exclaimed. The three men moved back with an 'eek'.

"H-Hold on, we're s—" they were cut off when the wind became strong and the girl waved her sword sideward, releasing a red shockwave to them. The red shockwave destroyed everything on its way until it reached the men then an explosion occurred.

After a few seconds, the whole area became clear again and Yoh remained stiff on his spot when the shockwave went pass through to his side, leaving a large trace of pulverized area in its trail. The three men were smoking black because of the attack.

"What… the… heck?" Yoh uttered nervously. He was sweating bullets after seeing his life hanging by a thread just a second ago. If he was hit by that, he would be toast.

The black-haired girl returned her gaze to Yoh, making him frightened and moved back. She put her sword back to its red sheath and flicked her hair.

"Um, you know…. I'm not one of them…" Yoh said while smiling nervously.

"You better get out of here," she said then turned her back to him.

"Eh?"

"The explosion I caused earlier made such a noise. The people will be here soon. If you get spotted, who knows what will happen?" she explained.

"Oh right… um… m-may I—" Yoh stopped midway when the girl immediately looked at him which made his skin crawl. _ S-She's kinda cute… but from what she did earlier, she may be short-tempered. I might not last for long if I piss her off. _"M-May I know your name?"

The girl remained staring at him, making Yoh to become more nervous. Then she nodded her head and murmured, "…ri…"

"H-Huh?" Yoh asked.

"It's Eri. Eri Azuraki," she said and faced him.

"O-Oh… Eri, it is. Wha—" Yoh exclaimed when she stared at him again. "I-I mean Azuraki...-san?" Sweat streamed down from his head and a small lump formed in his throat. _I don't know why... but she smells dangerous. Just looking at her staring at me makes me feel like I'm staring at death's door..._

"I'm fine with Eri," she said and closed her eyes.

"A-All right. By the way, I'm—"

"Yoh Asakura, right?" she cut him off.

"Wha— How did you know my—"

"I have my own source," she cut him off again.

Yoh sweated while giving her a suspicious look. _Own source? What are you, an agent? She's not just cute and scary, but also a fast talker. _His mind was interrupted when he heard a siren wailing. "Oh crap, the community people are here!"

"I'm going ahead," the girl said and turned her back to him.

"W-Wait—" Yoh said but she suddenly disappeared. "Why won't you always let me finish my sentence!?" he yelled in annoyance. Then he heard footsteps closing in fast. He immediately took the other route that leads to the main street.

"There's no one here!" he heard a man said.

"But what happened here? It looks like this place is bombed," another one said.

"Look, there are three men over there!" another one said.

Yoh ignored them and kept on running until he reached the junction. He panted heavily in order to catch his breath. "Man, lots of things have happened this day. Better go home or Anna will think I'm slacking off again," he said to himself and went to the way home. As he was walking, the black-haired girl from earlier popped into his mind. "That girl must be a shaman… There's no mistake about it. But, to do that all of a sudden…"

**A/N: Chapter 1 is done. Okay, about my OC, Eri Azuraki, she has a long story about her life which is mostly the main idea of the story. I also planned to pair her to someone… you'll know later. Tehee. And also about Acrein Yuruko, I got his concept of idea from a certain someone so thanks to her, I had a male OC. It's difficult to think of a male OC, don't you think? Especially since I'm a girl. Well, I love Eri and Acrein. More OCs will appear in this story and most of them will take the role as antagonists.**

**In truth, I suck at making Author's notes since I don't really have anything to say to you. I think you already hate me… T_T. But please don't mind the notes. I just wanted to give details about my story so that readers will understand more about it.**

**All right! Stay tuned for the next chappy! Oh, and please review!**


	3. C2 Friends' Night

**Chapter 2: Friends' Night**

_**A/N: Chapter 2 updated! Ok, I'm sorry to tell you this but this chapter sucks a bit. But still, please continue reading and review too, so that I can update much faster. I promise you, the story will get better eventually. More reviews, faster updates. **_

**Disclaimer: SK is owned by Hiroyuki Takei, not me.**

The wind gently blew through the road where Yoh's walking, heading home. The trees' leaves and the small grasses resting on the roadside swiftly swayed along with the breeze. You just let out an exhausted sigh while walking with his eyes closed. "Seriously, lots of unexpected things happened today. Well, guess I should call it a day." Not long, he arrived home just when the sun set. He went inside and said weakly, "I'm home…"

"You took too long for a short walk," he heard a girl said. Yoh raised his head and saw Anna standing in front of him with her arms crossed.

"A-Anna… uh, something happened back there…" he tried to explain but Anna cut him off.

"I know. Your friend explained it to me."

"My… friend?" Yoh said confused.

"Come in. You've got visitors," Anna said and turned her back to him then went to the living room. Yoh followed her. When they came to the living room, he saw some of his friends there, but there's one which surprised him more.

"Look, he's back!" Morty said pointing at Yoh.

"Welcome back, Yoh!" Trey said with a big grin.

"Hello there, Master," Ryu greeted him coolly.

"You're late, slacker," Ren added.

"Uh-huh… sorry. But, to think you showed up here immediately after our short talk earlier," Yoh referred to the spiky dark-blue haired sitting between Ren and Trey.

"I was excited to go here, so I immediately went here after going to my friend's house," Acrein replied with a wide grin and raised his glass.

"Well that's great!" Yoh said joyfully.

"Well, I'll leave you guys alone. Enjoy your little reunion," Anna said and walked out of the room.

"But Yoh… what's with you? You look like you're beat up," Acrein asked.

"Something happened while I was chilling out," Yoh replied as the scene from earlier passed by in his mind again.

"Why not tell us about it?" Trey said with a grin.

"Uh… how should I start? All right. Actually… I met a shaman at the alley," Yoh said as he sat down beside Morty.

"What!?" they all exclaimed in unison while moving their heads toward him.

Yoh sweated when he realized something off. _Oh right. That's not what happened first…_

"Come again?" Acrein said.

"Did you lose your hearing for a second?" Ren said to him.

"I almost got killed back there by that black-haired girl with red eyes," Yoh said as the scene from earlier popped into his mind again.

"Oh? You met a cute girl?" Ryu immediately asked as his eyes lit up in excitement.

"Yeah… she's… c-cute…"

"Huh!?" they all said in curiosity.

"But scary like… hell," he continued.

They were turned off and whitened out.

"How can you describe a girl who's cute and scary?" Acrein asked in confusion.

"Why scary?" Trey asked too.

"I'm not sure but, there's this dangerous feeling when she stared at me… like she's going to pierce me. She almost caught me up with her attack while teaching those jerks a lesson. If I got hit by that, I might be toast. She turned the whole alley into a mess."

"That's too exaggerated," Morty said in disbelief.

"I'm not lying. Go to that place and you'll find out."

"You mean… she pulverized the entire place?" Ren asked.

"Yup. With one blow."

They were even shocked and they froze in their place.

"Actually, a man threw a pole at me but he missed. Instead, it almost hit her. It was just a very slight mistake, but I guess… it would be your last mistake if you make her angry… even with just a single word that may piss her off."

"Yoh, that's too much," Morty cut in.

"All right, whatever. So, what's her name?" Acrein asked as he drank a bottle of juice.

"Hm… she said… Eri. I mean, Eri Azuraki" Yoh replied.

Acrein spew his drink out in surprise after hearing that name. "Wh-What… did you say?" he said as his mouth dripped wet. They looked at him with confused eyes.

"Eh? Y-You know her, Acrein?" Yoh asked.

"Y-Yeah… but I…" Acrein said as he became nervous.

"You know her? Who is she?" Ryu asked.

Acrein put his glass down and cleared his throat before talking. "Actually, she's… a student at Shinra where you go to, Yoh."

"R-Really? But I never heard of her before," Yoh said as he became interested in Acrein's story.

"To tell the truth, I go to the same school as you. That's why I know her. Many people know her, but no one would dare to approach her. Because of that, she has very few friends. And she never talks to people in open," he explained.

"I-Is that so? Well, I think I already know why. Probably because she always scares them away, like what happened to those three," Yoh added.

"But I already knew she is a shaman. It's obvious in her outlook."

"But doing things like that is kinda reckless. She's also short-tempered" Yoh said.

"Hm… even if you say that, I wish I could meet her personally," Ryu cut in.

"Is there any other idea in your mind aside from introducing yourself to girls and started flirting with them?" Ren said.

"Shut up. You're not one to talk!"

"Flirt," Ren smirked.

"Well, that's all I know about Eri Azuraki," Acrein said and went back to drinking.

"But you know, that's one unusual name…" Yoh said lastly.

"All right! Now let's get back to the party! Oh right. How about we tell ghost stories?" Trey exclaimed while raising his glass. The others made a bored sound.

"Ghost stories won't work. We're all spirit users, get it?" Morty commented.

"Eh? But aren't you scared of them?" Trey asked mischievously.

"I-I'm not scared!"

"Ghosts and spirits are different, right? Spirits are just the souls of people who can't rest in peace and remained in the real world because of an unfinished task. But ghosts… are somehow different…" Yoh said as his tone changed in the last sentence. His friends sweat-dropped.

"Y-Yoh, stop that…" Morty said trembling with a nervous smile.

"Ghosts are also souls but… they usually wander around abandoned places. Spirits are just like normal people, except they're only astral bodies which a normal person couldn't see or touch. But ghosts have this scary appearance of theirs… long black hair, covering their face, dressed in white dress tainted in blood… sharp nails…" Yoh continued as his face darkened and an evil smile on his face. Morty was crept out more.

"Look, he's already starting to story-tell…" Ren said to himself.

"N-Now that's scary…" Ryu said smiling nervously.

"Hey Morty. Even normal people can see and touch ghosts like that, right? For example, a person wanders around a dark forest then suddenly, he felt a shiver ran down his spine then he slowly looked back and…" Trey paused as he took a flashlight and lit his face then he and Yoh let out a small evil laugh while the other three just sweat-dropped.

"T-Then..?" Morty said as he gulped.

"A white lady bathed in blood appeared in front of him and choked him to death!" Yoh and Trey screamed in unison, making Morty scream in fright at the top of his lungs. Then both of them burst out laughing.

"L-L-Like that would happen for real!" Morty yelled.

"Yeah, got you right there!" Yoh and Trey said and laughed again.

"How did it end up in telling ghost stories?" Ren asked vexed.

"It was Trey's idea, wasn't it?" Ryu answered.

Suddenly, the switches flicked and the lights turned off, scaring them. Yoh, Trey, and Morty screamed in unison. The other three were surprised by the sudden blackout too.

"H-Hey, what's going on all of a sudden?" Yoh asked.

"Is it a power shortage?" Ren said while looking around.

"Y-You gotta be kidding me…" Ryu replied.

"W-We were just telling stories then it blacked out? That's too much for a coincidence!" Trey said while trembling in fear.

"Don't tell me you're scared now?" Morty said teasingly.

"No I'm not!" Trey yelled angrily.

"Yeah, says the puss shaking in his boots," Ren added.

"What did you say!?"

Then they heard a whistling sound which made them crept out. The window was open and the curtain flew like a silhouette.

"T-The wind?" Acrein said nervously.

"T-Thank goodness," Morty sighed in relief.

"I… think I'm going to get Anna and Tamara to check out the breaker…" Yoh said as he crawled to the door and opened it wide while looking at his friends. Then he saw his friends turning pale while looking behind him. "Wh-What's wrong, guys?"

"Y-Yoh…" Ren said pointing behind Yoh.

"A-A… ghost!" Trey and Morty screamed out loud.

Yoh slowly turned his head to his front…. and a lady dressed in white tainted in blood with her long black hair covering her face stumbled in front of him. It is also carrying a small lantern and raised it near to her face then her hair moved apart, showing her very scary face. Yoh's face turned pale like he loses blood as he saw the face of the ghost.

"Heeelp meee…." the ghost said in a deep scary voice.

Yoh's scream echoed throughout the entire neighborhood, waking the animals up and making the birds sleeping on their roof top fly away. He passed out on the floor and something white came out from his body. Then the ghost looked at his friends, making their skin crawl.

"Oh my God! This is not—" Trey said out loud and moved back along with the others.

"I-It is a ghost! A real ghost! T-The lady dressed in white! We're dead now!" Acrein yelled.

"Heeelp meee…" the ghost said again and walked slowly to them. They moved back every time it takes a step until they reached the door, the other exit of the living room.

"Wh-What now?" Ryu said panicking.

"I… I can't open it!" Ren said while pulling the door's knob hard.

"Ah! Be gone, evil spirit!" Trey yelled while waving his hands.

"Heeeelp…." the ghost said again, closing in on them.

"D-Damn it! Open for heaven's sake, you stupid door!" Ren yelled in annoyance as he pulled the knob harder.

Suddenly, the door slid open, dragging Ren along with the force and the others lied down on the floor. They opened their eyes and saw a figure carrying a lit candle. They all screamed in fright and trembled in fear.

"What's with you noisy people?" the one with the lit candle said with the voice of a girl.

"Huh?" they stopped screaming and looked at the face of the person standing before them. It was Anna and they saw Tamara standing behind her. "A-Anna?"

"The lights suddenly turned off and you people down here are too noisy," Anna said with an irritated look.

"Anna, there's a ghost!" Morty exclaimed pointing at the ghost standing before them. Anna followed where Morty's pointing at and saw the ghost but she didn't react at all.

"E-Eh? W-What's happening? T-The ghost…. suddenly became quiet…" Acrein said confused yet still scared.

The ghost sweated nervously as it saw the blonde girl's stare. It looked like it saw another ghost even scarier than itself. Anna stepped in front of them and let out a sigh.

"A-Anna, what are you doing!?" Morty exclaimed in panic.

"How long are you gonna keep this prank up?" Anna said as she put her hand on her waist.

"P-Prank?" they all said in confusion.

Suddenly, Zenki and Khoki appeared in front of the ghost in a blink of an eye and punched it hard, making it flew backwards and hit its back against the wall. The others jaw dropped as they saw the ghost being beaten by Anna. And suddenly, the lights turned on back. They saw the ghost lying on the floor dizzied.

"Seriously, to cause such a ruckus in the night," Anna said as she walked near the ghost.

"Wait, what… does this mean?" Trey asked surprised.

Then Anna held the ghost's cloth and pulled it until it ripped then she removed the other parts of it: the hair, the nails, and the lantern that it carried earlier. Then a person with short black hair, wearing a light-blue sweater and long black pants stumbled in front of them.

"W-What's… that?" Ryu said as he took a closer look at the person.

"I-It can't be…" Acrein exclaimed as his eyes widen in shock.

"It was just an idiot who's pretending to be a ghost. You guys are so pathetic," Anna said as she pulled the person's hood and threw him in front of them. "I think you know who's responsibility this is… huh, Acrein?" Her eyes narrowed in irritation as she glared at Acrein.

The boy looked at Acrein with a nervous outlook. Then he grinned at him and said, "D-Did I get you on the spot?"

Acrein clenched his fist and beat the boy up. "Get you on the spot, my ass! What the hell do you think you were doing, huh, Hinjiko!?" he yelled at him.

"S-Sorry… Master... P-Please forgive me…" the boy said while crying like a child.

"So it was you, huh? You think I'll just forgive you that easily!? You idiot!" Acrein yelled angrily while kicking the boy many times.

"D-Did he just say… Master?" Ren said.

"Then that means…" they all looked at Acrein with an angry look. "It was your spirit who was doing it, Acrein!?" they all yelled in unison.

"W-Wait up! I didn't order or command him to do it for fun!" Acrein explained nervously.

"Huh? That was not funny at all…" they all said sarcastically while giving Acrein glares.

"H-Hold on! Hinjiko did it by himself… Even I was scared too, you know that? H-Hey, apologize to them!" Acrein whispered to Hinjiko as he grabbed his hood.

"Tehee… it was fun watching you all frightened just by a single ghost… I thought shamans never get afraid of them…" Hinjiko said with a mischievous smile.

"Hinji—" Acrein was cut off when something sharp passed through in front of his face, cutting a few of his hair. He let out a small 'eek' as he turned around and saw Ren, Trey and Ryu carrying their weapons and a dark aura behind them.

"Didn't your parents teach you to say 'sorry' if you do something that pisses other people, huh!?" Ren said in an angry voice as he raised his spear.

"If a spirit makes fault, then his master should also take responsibility…" Ryu added as his wooden sword glowed in purple light.

"You even broke our fun talk earlier, and you're the one to be blame for it!" Trey yelled as he pointed his snowboard at them both.

The two sweated nervously as they saw their angry outlook and moved back a bit.

"C-Calm down, guys. He didn't—" Acrein couldn't finish his sentence when Hinjiko cut him off.

"So I got your heart racing because of fright?" Hinjiko smiled mischievously and snickered.

"Shut the hell up!" the three yelled and beat the two to a corner. Morty and Tamara just sweat-dropped at the scene.

"Hm? What happened to Yoh?" Anna asked as she walked to Yoh who's lying on the floor passed out.

"Uh… that 'ghost' from earlier surprised him all of a sudden then he passed out," Morty replied with a nervous smile.

Anna just sighed and held her hand out as if she grabbed the white figure in midair and shoved it to Yoh's face. Yoh immediately woke up of the pain.

"Ow… that hurts!" he exclaimed as he held his face. He looked to his side and saw Anna. "Um… excuse me?" 

"Well, I think that's fine…" Anna said and stood up.

"What's going on? It's suddenly noisy…" Yoh looked at his friends and saw them beating Acrein and an unfamiliar person. "Who is—" he stopped when he saw a white dress in blood and a black hair on the floor. He screamed in fright and passed out again.

"Yoh!" Morty exclaimed.

"Jeez, he passed out again," Tamara said.

The fun continued and the night at the inn became noisy.

_**A/N: Done! Yeah, I know. It really sucks, doesn't it? I was thinking to edit this one but I was too lazy to change it and think of a new setting. Stupid attitude of mine.**_

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**Reviews, anyone?**_


	4. C3 A Friend of Hers

**Chapter 3: A Friend of Hers**

_**A/N: Here's Chapter 3! By the way, I almost forgot to say this. Why do I choose the English version of their names? It's because I like it more. I like Trey Racer more than Horohoro and Morty than Manta. Hao will also appear sooner and I named him Zeke. Ren… well, I already like his original name so I left it at that. So just please bear with it. And to let you know, more OCs will pop out later in the story. I think there will be…. 11 OCs in total I have, 4 main OCs and 7 who will take the role of enemies. But please continue and review. It will make me happy.**_

_**Now on with the story!**_

It was a fine weather in the morning. The summer wind blew gently throughout the lawn of the school, making the leaves of the trees dance. Yoh let out a loud sigh as he slammed his back at the back of the bench at the school's backyard.

"Are you okay, Yoh?" his friend Morty, who's sitting beside him, looked at him with concerned eyes.

"I'm fine. I'm just tired about what happened last night. Jeez, for the first time to go to the house in a long time, it seems like he didn't last for long with Ren, Ryu, and Trey beating him up…" Yoh replied with a smile.

"I was also frightened by that. But it was just his spirit though…" Morty said and they both laughed. Then silence fell upon them and the whole place became quiet. It was just the two of them alone though.

They heard a rustling sound coming from behind the bush behind them, breaking the peaceful atmosphere. Yoh turned his head to his back and looked at the rustling bush.

"What is it?" Morty asked as he followed Yoh's sight.

Suddenly, a short light brown-haired girl came out from behind the bush and tripped on a tree's root. She almost fell to the ground but immediately regained her balance. Yoh and Morty stood up in surprise.

"W-Who's that?" Morty asked.

"D-Don't know her…"

"Whoa… that was close…" The girl raised her head and saw Yoh and Morty looking at her. They stared at each other for a moment then she smiled at them. "Well, hello there you two!" she greeted in a cheerful way. Yoh and Morty just stared at her suspiciously.

"Hello?" she waved her hand in front of Yoh and he snapped out of it.

"Ah… h-hello to you too…" Yoh replied with a smile and looked to his side. "Sorry, I just spaced out."

"Wow, I never knew the backyard was this big and yet there are no people around!" She looked at the sky and raised her hands to the air.

"Um… excuse me—"

"Why are you two out alone here? For a friendly talk? Or giving an advice to each other?" She moved her face closer to Yoh, making him step back.

"T-That's not what we're doing!" Yoh said awkwardly. _What is she saying? She's making choices that are out of the topic!_

"Eh? Friends really hang out in lonely places like this, huh?" She put her hand above her eyes and looked around.

"Uh, what were you doing behind the bush?" Yoh asked and she looked at him.

"Are you playing hide and seek?" Morty cut in.

The girl crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Say, have you seen a girl with black hair… about this tall?" She raised her hand just an inch above her head. Yoh and Morty just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"N-No, we haven't. We're the only ones here," Yoh replied.

"Oh, I see. Jeez, she's so ignorant," the girl said with a frown.

"But, who are you looking for?" Morty asked and stepped in front.

"Huh? I'm looking for my best friend. She usually hangs out in places where there are at least few people around, so I check out here." She gave them a very bright smile.

"Hm? Did you just say black hair? And she hangs out in lonely places?" Yoh asked as he's starting to realize who the girl is finding.

"Huh? Yes, I did. Oh, pardon me for not introducing myself first. Eurin Nishizaki, pleased to have your acquaintance!" She bowed her head.

"Uh, no need to bow. I'm Yoh Asakura and this is my friend, Morty Oyamada." He pointed at Morty.

"Look at you, just asking them if they have seen me and immediately made friends with them. As expected of you, Eurin." A girl's voice coming from behind them caught their attention.

"So there you are!" The girl named Eurin peeped behind Yoh with a smile.

"Huh!? S-She's your… best friend?" Yoh said in disbelief as he pointed at the black-haired girl.

"What are you talking about? I'm not her friend. She just looked up to me as a friend because she's fond of me," the black-haired girl said walking to them.

"Cold-hearted as always, aren't you, Eri?" Eurin said and walked to her.

"E-Eri? As in… Eri Azuraki?" Yoh said and tilted his head to his head.

"Eri? T-The girl you told us about who destroyed the whole alley last night?" Morty asked looking at Yoh.

"So you told your friends about me?" Eri looked at Yoh with serious eyes, making him nervous.

"Ah…. n-no… yes," he answered and looked to his side. He freaked out when Eri gave him a cold stare. "I-I'm sorry! I just told them without knowing that you didn't like to be… uh… known?"

"Oh, so you are friends?" Eurin cut in.

"He's not a friend. So are you," Eri said to Eurin.

"We just happened to know each other yesterday."

"That's so rude, Eri!" Eurin said with a frown. "And wait, you made another commotion yesterday? I told you to hold up your temper to avoid causing fights."

"A-Another? You mean…" Yoh became shocked.

"You're not my mom to lecture me." Eri crossed her arms.

"Forgive her. She's just a short-tempered person so she easily jumps into fights," Eurin said to Yoh.

"So… aside from that ruckus yesterday, you've been… beating people whenever they do something to you?" Yoh asked with surprised eyes.

"Now that you know, I want you to keep your mouth shut or I'll add you to my list." Eri raised her hand and clenched it hard.

"I-I get it…" Yoh sweat-dropped nervously. _How can such a cute girl like her be scary like a demon inside? She may be… scarier than Anna…_

"Now, if you excuse us, we're going. Bye, guys!" Eurin circled her arm to Eri's and dragged her away without any hesitation.

"W-Wait, Eurin!"

Yoh and Morty are left alone, standing like statues while watching those two girls walking away. Then the wind blew, making them snap out of their thoughts.

"How could that cheerful girl handle Eri's short-tempered attitude?" Morty asked out of the blue.

"I don't know. But… she scared me just to avoid being known by people… Why is that? Does that mean, she doesn't want to have any friends?" Yoh replied, wondering to himself.

**TIME SKIP:**

Yoh and Morty are walking on the streets on the way home. They are having different kinds of conversation while walking on their way. Not long, they passed by a pulverized dark alley where there are no people around.

"Whoa, this place is a mess," Morty said as his eyes widen in surprise.

"Actually, this is where we met," Yoh said with a smile.

"What?"

"To start with, I saved a man being bullied by bad guys in here then she came and taught those jerks a lesson. But I guess she overdid it. Look at that," Yoh said and looked at the pathway.

"But after seeing this… she may be a strong shaman, right?" Morty looked at Yoh.

"Probably. Well, shall we go?" Yoh started to walk away and his friend follows.

"Yoh?" Morty said out of the blue.

"What is it?"

"Maybe you forgot that…" he said with a concerned smile, making Yoh confused.

"Forgot what?"

"Didn't Anna tell you yesterday? That you are going under a—"

"Ah! I completely forgot! She's really serious about that!?" Yoh exclaimed in panic.

"Yup. She told me to remind you so that you could prepare for it."

"It can't be! I'm done for…" Yoh nodded his head in disappointment.

"Well, it can't be helped. Now let's go." Morty faced him and gave him a smile.

"How come? I was just—" Yoh was cut off when he felt a chill ran down his spine. It's like he froze in his place and everything went slow in motion. _What… is this? A very strange…. and dangerous presence is lingering around the area… Wait! _"Eri!" he suddenly exclaimed that name from nowhere.

"Yoh?" Morty said in confusion.

"H-Huh?" He returned his attention to his friend.

"Did you just mention… Eri's name?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Let's hurry back home." He then smiled back and started to walk fast.

"Eh? I thought you didn't want to face Anna's training," Morty said while trying to catch up with Yoh.

"Uh... I just hope she would spare me this time. I really feel like we need to go back," Yoh replied with a smile.

"Change your mind?" Morty just sweat-dropped at him.

They walked fast and not too long, they arrived in front of the inn. They saw Tamara going in carrying a large box. Yoh ran to Tamara without her noticing.

"Tamara!"

"W-What!?" Tamara looked back and her eyes widen in surprise as she saw Yoh in front of her. "Yoh? You're quite early!"" 

"Something came up. Is Anna around?"

"Uh, well, she went out earlier. Although I don't know—"

"Yes! I thought I will undergo another hellish training but I will not!" Yoh exclaimed as he went inside the house.

"What was that?" Tamara said surprised.

"I don't know either…" Morty replied as lines are shed on his eyes.

As Yoh went inside the living room, he was surprised when he only saw Ryu, Trey and Acrein inside. "Where's Ren, guys?"

"Oh, he went out just a while ago. Probably chilling out," Trey replied like he didn't care.

"D-Don't tell me… he went out with… A-Anna?"

"Ridiculous. Miss Anna went ahead first and he just went out. What makes you even think that?" Ryu said vexed.

"N-Nothing…"

"He really gave me a good beating last night…" Acrein said in disappointment.

"Yeah, serves you right. Maybe you should teach your spirit manners next time, all right?" Trey said mischievously.

"Hey, hey…." Yoh just sweated.

_**A/N: I just finished checking chapter 4 now please tell me what you think about this one.**_

_**As for the new OC, Eurin Nishizaki, I liked her characters. She's the cheerful and annoying type and I liked the idea of making her Eri's friend, although Eri doesn't really like her. Eri's the cool and stubborn type that likely capture a guy's heart at first sight but turns them off. Eurin though… is hardheaded. Cool lines and rejections don't work on her. **_

_**Next chapter contains fighting scenes and stuff. Things will be getting more exciting from now on… or in my view only.**_


	5. C4 Heating Battle part 1

**Chapter 4: Heating Battle part 1**

_**A/N: Hello, guys! Here's Chapter 4. To the person who read and reviewed my story, I thank you very much. I' m happy that I received at least 1 review. I hope you enjoy reading this one! I also made a character's profile which I will update next chapter 9, where the last main OC character will show up, so that you can have more idea on how they look like. I said 4 main OCs in the last chapter, didn't I? There's Eri, Acrein, Eurin, and secret. **_

_**Hope you like this chap. And please review too.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own SK, obviously.**_

**-in the city-**

It's 6:00 in the night. Somewhere around the city, a black-haired girl is walking down the road alone. She kept paying attention while walking, not looking around to see the faces of the people she passed by. As she saw lots of girls standing by on the roadside, a fresh memory came into her mind.

_**-flashback-**_

_In the first time she went to school, a place where there are lots of people around, she hadn't had a friend to talk with. Every time she went near to crowds, she's being avoided by them. But it's not something that she hates. She actually likes it when no one talks to her, for some reason._

_-at the school's backyard-_

_The black-haired girl sat down on a bench under a large tree, and raised her head and stared at the sky. She took a deep breath and let it out. "It's nice to have a peaceful place to hang out..." She leaned on the back of the bench and opened a lemonade drink she carried earlier._

_A rustling sound coming from behind her broke the peaceful atmosphere that she enjoys. She looked behind her and saw the bush moving. Then out from the bush is a short brown-haired girl dressed in the same uniform she wears. The girl tripped on a small stone and fell to the ground face flat. She remained sitting on her spot while watching the girl get up slowly._

_"O-Ow... that hurts..." The brown-haired girl covered her nose as she knelt down. She looked around and saw the long black-haired girl staring at her with blank eyes. She grinned at her and showed a peace sign. "Did I surprise you?"_

_The black-haired girl stood up from the bench and walked away like she ignored her. The brown-haired girl turned off and froze on her spot. She shook her head many times and snapped out. "Wait up, you!" she yelled and the black-haired girl stopped._

_"What do you want?" She turned and faced the girl kneeling on the ground._

_"Uh... I was just trying to surprise you so that you could at least make a face aside from that lonely expression," the brown-haired girl said with a smile while scratching her head._

_"I don't feel lonely. Actually, I like it when I'm alone. And to let you know, your entry was kinda lame." _

_The brown-haired girl whitened out and exclaimed, "L-Lame!? I see... Argh! Whatever happens, I couldn't think of anything better than my 'Tripped on a Tree's Root' introduction!" She scratched her hair in irritation._

_The black-haired girl's eyes widen in surprise as she watched the brown-haired girl._

_"Wh-What?" the girl asked._

_"You're kinda weird... for a stranger..." she said naturally._

_The brown-haired girl stumbled down to the ground again and immediately stood up with a quick recovery. "First, you called me lame, and now, a strange weirdo? How come you're so cold?" She was surprised when she saw the black-haired girl walking away. She immediately ran to her and blocked her way. "Hold it!"_

_The black-haired girl gave her a glare that everyone feared to meet. She crossed her arms and asked with a slight tone of irritation. "What the heck do you want? I'm in a hurry."_

_The girl put her hands on her knee and smiled at her, which surprised her. "Why are you always scaring people away when you have a cute face to charm them?"_

_"I'm not a flirt like most of the girls around here."_

_"N-No, that's not what I meant. I mean, why not be friends with other people?"_

_"F-Friends...?" She put her hands down and looked at her with surprised and curious eyes._

_"What I'm saying is, why not be friends with me then?" _

_She took a step back and uttered, "W-Wait, aren't you afraid of me?"_

_"Why would I be afraid of you? You don't bite, right?" The girl chuckled heartily._

_"Hm. Forget it. I don't want to be friends with a stranger, all right?" _

_"I'm not a stranger. I'm Eurin Nishizaki. All right, if you don't want my friendship, can we at least shake hands and be acquaintances?" the girl said with her cheerful smile on her face and held out her hand._

_'A friend? It's been a long time since I've heard someone say that to me... but,' the girl thought. She nodded her head and held the girl's hand. "Fine. I'm Eri Azuraki."_

_"Pleased to have your acquaintance, Eri."_

_"Wait. Before you say anything, I want to make some rules, get it?"_

_"R-Rules!? There are no rules when it comes to-" Eurin said but Eri cut her off._

_"One. Don't try to act all buddy-buddy with me, d'you copy that?" Eri raised her index finger._

_"Eh? Wait-"_

_"Two. Don't talk lots to people about me." Eri said again as she raised her index finger and middle finger._

_"Why not?" Eurin said as she sweat-dropped._

_"And three. Don't call me anything else aside from my name. As in anything else!" she raised her voice in the last sentence._

_"Eh? Can't I call you Rika? I actually like that name..." Eurin said as she smiled nervously._

_"Why are you adding 'ka' to my name?" she said and crossed her arms._

_"All right. Are those all the rules?"_

_" Yes. Now I gotta go." She passed to her side and walked out._

_"Then later, Eri!" Eurin said as she waved her hand even the black-haired girl didn't look back._

_-end of flashback-_

Eri closed her eyes and sighed while she continued walking on her way to her apartment. After taking a few steps, she stopped walking and opened her eyes. Her expression became serious as she peeped behind her and saw a hooded figure following her just a few meters away. She took a deep breath and walked fast. She reached the corner to her apartment but she took the other route to an abandoned alley. She realized the cloaked figure followed her too.

She ran faster until she arrived at a street where there are no people around. There are also no streetlights to light the area. It was dark around her. But she didn't let her guard down.

"So you really lead me to a place where no one will get involved, huh?" a voice said from behind her. She didn't show any reaction as she turned around and faced the cloaked figure who's following her.

"If you said 'involved', that means you're planning to take me on?" Eri said as the cold night wind blew through her black hair.

"Hold on. I'm not one of those stupid scumbags that you always greet with an explosion, so don't look down on me," the cloaked person said in a girl's voice.

"You want something from me? No matter what it is, I'll give it to you."

The cloaked person just snickered and said, "No matter what, huh? All right. Then what will you do if I say your life?"

"I can give you as many free cuts as you want for a skin display."

"That's your little mistress for you. Then, why don't you give me what you just said?" The person raised her index finger and pointed at Eri. "Black Bell..."

Eri's eyes widen in shock when she felt something from behind her closing in on her fast. She looked back and saw two black flying creatures charging at her. The creatures dove into her and caused a big explosion of rocks and dust. After a few seconds, the area became clear again and the attack left a big crater on the ground. Eri was nowhere to be seen.

"Hm? From my intuition, even she can block that attack in that distance yet..." the cloaked person said and crossed her arms. Then she heard footsteps closing in behind her and she shoved her hand to her cloak. She took out a dagger and turned around and blocked a sword that was going to stab her from behind.

"I know you're still alive," the person said with a smirk.

"A shaman, huh?" Eri glared at her and the cloaked person pushed her back.

"You're quite fast. I shouldn't have underestimated you."

Eri felt the ground where she is standing rumble. She immediately jumped to her side and the flying creatures from earlier came out from underground like a rocket. After soaring high enough, they turned around and stayed in the air.

"Think you can last long enough?" The person in cloak raised her index finger to the air and pointed at Eri and they charged to her in a fast speed.

Eri held her hand out and a small rose ball formed on top of her palm, and murmured two words. The flying creatures reached her ground and another explosion occurred.

"Did she block it?" The cloaked person remained standing on her spot, waiting for the place to become clear. Then her eyes widen in shock when she saw a shadow of a girl standing in the fog of dust with a crimson colored sword and a metallic wing on its hilt. "I-I can't believe it..."

The dusts flew away and the person saw Eri standing straight and her spirits were on the ground, piled one after the other with Eri's blade on their necks.

"My Black Bells..." the cloaked person uttered in disbelief.

"Yes, I think I can last for long..." Eri said as her bangs fell to her eyes. She pulled her sword and the Black Bells' bodies disappeared. Her sword's blade glowed in crimson red like a newly melted metal to be shaped into an object.

The cloaked person immediately recovered from shock and observed Eri. "I haven't seen a shaman defeated my spirits just like that. You were able to stop it even at that short distance."

Eri didn't reply and blew her hair that covers her eyes away. She glared at the cloaked person with her dark-red eyes.

"But… things won't be the same in the second time. I already expected that." She put her palm in front of her and five dark balls formed in the air behind her. Slowly, the balls turned into the ones earlier. Only this time, they're bigger. "Can you handle all this Black Bells once at a time?"

Eri became more serious and stationed to herself to battle. She put her sword in front of her and waited for the spirits to charge at her. The cloaked person grinned evilly, then stretched her hands out and crossed them in front of her. Two of the spirits charged and tackled her. Eri moved to her right and the spirit went pass through her. She pointed her sword to the creature and set in red fire.

"Just like a fly, aren't you!?" Eri yelled and was about to pierce it when she saw the other one charged to her in a lightning speed while she's evading. Before the second one hit her, she bent her back and it went pass above her. The spirits crashed on the wall, leaving a big hole on it. Eri lied down to the ground, sweating bullets while panting heavily.

"I like your flexibility. You really are good enough to be my warm-up exercise." The cloaked person waved her hand to her right and the other two moved towards Eri who's lying on the ground.

Eri immediately stood up and dodged the first one. The first one missed her but changed directions in a second before it could hit an obstacle. The second one charged to her fast like a rocket but Eri moved faster than it and jumped above just before it hit her. She spun her sword on her hands and stabbed its back. She disappeared from her place and appeared again behind the first spirit and released a red shockwave to it, making it burn to ashes and destroying everything in its way. It left a large pulverized trail on the ground.

Before Eri landed on the ground, the cloaked person suddenly vanished from her spot and appeared right in front of her, with her right hand holding a dagger raised above her.

"Got you now!" She swung the sharp tool downwards and Eri blocked it with hers too. Sounds of swords clashing are heard.

_**A/N: Cliffy. End of Chapter 4. I forgot to say this too, but some of you are probably wondering where the other two main characters are: Lyserg and Chocolove. They'll appear later in the story so just sit back and relax. **_

_**I love to give out details to people so I'll just tell you. These 7 people I keep talking about belong to a group, so they're a bunch of lap dogs, like Hao's followers or the X-Laws. But they won't come out in the story at the same time. Maybe they'll show up one after another.**_

…_**. I talk too much, didn't I? Okay, I'll just shut up.**_

_**Please review and look forward to the new chapter. ^^**_


	6. C5 Heating Battle part 2

**Chapter 5: Heating Battle part 2**

_**A/N: Hi, I'm back! Sorry to keep you waiting. School works always get in the way and I don't have the time to use the Internet. I couldn't get to use the laptop too because my mother has been busy with it lately. I'm not also sure when I can use the Internet again… maybe during Saturdays and Sundays.**_

_**Now, please enjoy reading this one. And don't forget to drop a review too. Reviews make me happy and encourage me to write more chapters. ^^**_

A short brown-haired girl wearing a light-red dress and an orange jacket is standing outside a huge dormitory. She kept on looking at the huge digital clock showed on a huge screen on a neighboring tall building. She just let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

"She's still not back yet... Where did she go? Probably another fight..." Eurin said to herself in disappointment. Suddenly, she heard her phone rang in her pocket, making her snap out of her thoughts. She picked it up without looking at the number. "Hello?"

"Hello... Eurin," a familiar voice of a girl came from the other line. Eurin's eyes widen in shock as she realized the owner of the voice.

"H-Hello?" she replied nervously.

"What's with your voice? You sound nervous. Don't tell me you already forgot who I am?" the girl said in a nice and sweet tone.

_'C-Could it be... her?'_ Eurin thought. Then she shook her head few times and her expression became serious. "I-I'm very sorry. I was just a bit surprised to hear your voice again after a long time."

She heard the girl on the other line chuckled. "Let me guess. You found us somewhat familiar but you still recognized me. You're surprised, right?"

"A-Actually, yes." Then her face became a bit disappointed. "B-By the way, can I ask something?"

"Go ahead," the voice replied nicely.

"Is it already starting?"

"Hm? Yeah... it is. Sorry for not telling you about it."

Eurin remained quiet for a while, thinking deeply. Then she heard the voice speak again.

"Eurin?"

"Huh? Oh sorry. I just spaced out."

"What's wrong? You sounded a bit disappointed."

"I... just missed your voice, that's all." Eurin replied with a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, me too." Then both of them started to laugh. Then the girl spoke again. "Don't forget that you have an important job to do, Eurin."

"Yeah, sure. I won't fail you, miss," Eurin said as she became normal again.

"Then I'm hanging up." The girl hung up and all that could be heard in Eurin's phone is a beeping sound. She sighed as she put her phone back to her pocket. She looked at the clock as a smile appeared on her face. "Sorry, Eri. I won't be able to hang out with you tonight." She walked away in a hurry.

**-back with Eri-**

An explosion occurred one after another at the dark street where the two shamans are fighting. After each explosion, sounds of clashing swords can be heard.

Both of them moved back from each other, panting heavily. But suddenly, Eri felt her legs ached and she knelt down on one knee. The cloaked person smiled as she realized that she's at an advantage in this fight.

"I see now... So that's why you hid your true powers from anyone else. You don't want to cause trouble for anyone, so that's why you're taking it easy on me."

"So...?" Eri raised her head and sent the person a piercing glare.

"I'm a bit disappointed that you couldn't bring it out in here. Too bad, I actually wanted to see you do that. Earlier while we were fighting, I realized you were hiding something else.. You must have something else in your sleeves, right?"

"You wanted me to do it? Sorry... but I can't just recklessly use it... to a weakling like you..." Eri replied.

The person in cloak clenched her teeth and her fist. "A weakling, huh? Then... let's find out..." she raised her right hand in front of her and the last black spirit moved forward. Then she yelled, "...who's the weakling here!" The spirit folded its wings and it glowed in dark purple light. Eri observed the creature carefully. Then it opened its wings and many small spirits came out. Eri's eyes widen in surprise.

"Go forth, my spirits!" the person exclaimed and the little ones flew to Eri and surrounded her. Eri just clenched her teeth. And all at once, they charged towards her.

Eri grabbed her sword and set it into fire again. "I told you... you're all just like flies!" She swung it around her and lashed out another shockwave, creating a loud explosion. As the dusts flew in the air, a small one immediately charged into Eri. She raised her weapon again and yelled, "You too!" Suddenly, it stopped moving just before it hit her and opened its wings. Eri saw a piece of paper in its tip and her eyes widen in surprise. "That's-"

The cloaked person grinned and snapped her fingers. "Explode."

The paper glowed then exploded. Eri was thrown backwards and slammed herself into a wall. The explosion left another big crater on the ground. Then the whole place became clear.

"I told you, don't look down on me, little miss," the person said and walked near to Eri who's sitting and leaning on the wall. Eri raised her head and smirked, making her surprised.

"You think you're the only one who could do it?" Eri threw a piece of paper in front of the cloaked person and it released a white smoke. Eri took the chance to escape.

When the smoke vanished, Eri was nowhere to be seen. The person clenched her teeth and stomped her feet. "She ran away? I don't expect that! Just you wait, black hair. I won't let you get away!" She went out of the place and started searching.

While Eri ran away quite far from the battlefield, she leaned on the wall of the corner and let out a sigh of relief. "I can't fight her anymore... I have to escape... I should return home fast while I have the chance..." She slowly started to walk when she felt something flying passed by above her. She immediately ran and didn't dare to look back.

**-at the streetside-**

A certain purple-haired boy is walking down the road with his hands in his pocket. A small red ball of spirit followed behind him.

"Sheesh, to think that she only called me just to help her with the things..." Ren murmured with a slight tone of irritation.

"But didn't you feel comfortable after helping her out?" Bason said while following his master.

"Whenever she asks me to do something for her, I can't help it but to do her the favor."

"As expected of you, Master. You've really gotten closer to Miss Jun this time," his spirit said mischievously.

"Shut up. I don't want to hear that from you. Hurry up or we'll be late."

"Right. Please forgive me."

The two stopped walking when they heard footsteps closing in from behind. Ren looked around and saw a long black-haired girl bruised, standing and panting heavily on the corner.

"W-Who is she?" Bason asked as he looked at the girl.

"A girl..." Ren said to himself as he took a closer look at the girl.

Eri raised her head and saw Ren staring at her. "Another... weirdo..."

A nerve snapped on Ren's head and his eyebrows twitched. "Who are you calling a weirdo? Wait, your eyes..."

"Huh?" Eri looked at him with confused eyes.

"I think... I know you..." Ren said as he raised one of his eyebrows.

"H-Hurry up... and get out of here..." Eri held her left aching arm then looked behind her.

"What's with your attitude? You're suddenly telling me to-" Ren was cut off when Eri suddenly tackled him down and the ground where they were standing exploded, causing small stones and dusts to fly.

"Are you all right?" Eri let go of him and looked down.

"What was that...?" Ren sat up and his eyes widen in surprise as he saw the big hole on the ground.

"Master!" His spirit flew towards them worriedly.

"A... A spirit?" Eri raised her head and saw a small red ball behind Ren.

"I'm fine. What about you?" He looked at the black-haired girl in front of him.

"I'm... less okay... Just get out of here."

"What's going on?"

They heard a screeching sound coming from underground which startled them. The black spirit from earlier shoot out from the ground and soared into the sky.

"What on Earth is that?" Ren asked surprised while looking at the creature above.

Then the spirit turned its direction to them and dove in a fast speed while spinning on its own axis, creating a strong wind current around it and cutting the air like a drill. Eri immediately stood up in front of Ren and grabbed her sword and unsheathed it.

"Hey, wait!"

"Go to hell!" Eri yelled in anger and blocked the attack with the tip of her sword. She overpowered the bird's attack by lashing out a very strong shockwave to the enemy, making it burn to ashes. She knelt down on the ground tired and beat up.

"Hey, you..." Ren went near to her and suddenly, Eri collapsed on the ground. "Hey! Get a hold of yourself!"

"What happened to her, Master?" Bason asked.

"She's all beat up. Jeez, what the heck happened here?"

"That weird creature from earlier must be its doing. But what should we do to her?"

"Guess we have no choice... I think we should bring her to Yoh's place and heal her first..." He knelt down and picked Eri from the ground and placed her on his back.

"I think that's the best idea. Plus, we can't just leave her here while injured."

A siren wailing and many vehicles are heard coming to the place where they are, startling them.

"Tch, of all times, why now?" Ren said in irritation while getting up slowly with Eri on his back.

"Let's go, Master." Bason went ahead and he followed.

After walking out from the messed place, the people just arrived, not finding any clues of what happened. The cloaked person from earlier watched the people in commotion from a high electric post. Then she turned her head to the right, watching the black-haired girl escaped.

"Tch, how come whenever I started to enjoy the fun, it immediately ends? This pisses me off," she said while removing her hood that covers her face. The wind blew gently through her, and her long, wavy, green hair swayed. She opened her eyelids, revealing her purple eyes. "Well, at least I enjoyed the night. Now I got to go back or Luke and Rose will scold me again. See you next time, Blacky." She smirked and vanished from her spot.

_**A/N: Yeah, I know. It's a short chapter. And it may sound boring, but please continue reading. And please review too.**_

_**BTW, if you're a fan of Fairy Tail, please check out my other story entitled "Keys to the Demon's Heart". ^^**_


	7. C6 Meet His Crew

**Chapter 6: Meet His Crew**

**A/N: To those who read my story, I thank you again. And to **weblasky**, thanks for being the first follower! Hao will appear in the next chapter. Now I hope you like this one. Enjoy!**

Yoh kept staring at the wall clock while one of his eyebrows raised. It was already seven pm. He closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh. "I wonder where on earth he went..."

"He's kinda late," Morty added as he sat down on the table while reading.

"Did he go home already?" Ryu asked while sitting and leaning on the wall.

"I doubt that. Probably something happened," Faust replied who is sitting beside Elizah. Apparently, he just dropped by at the inn to hang out with them for a while.

Then they all became quiet for a moment then Trey and Acrein suddenly exclaimed which surprised them.

"What's wrong with you both?" Yoh asked as he bent his back and looked at them.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, huh, Trey?" Acrein said to Trey with a suspicious look on his face.

"You bet I do."

"What is it, guys?" Morty asked and stopped reading.

"That's it. Maybe something really happened to him..." The two said while nodding their heads a few times.

"Eh? Really?" Ryu asked curiously.

"For him to go out and not coming back until this late, it's pretty unusual for him..." Trey said while crossing his arms.

"Huh?" All of them looked at them confused.

"Could it be... he's been hanging out with a cute onee-san!?" The two exclaimed in unison and the others turned off and comically stumbled down to the floor.

"What the hell are you saying, you two!? Ren would never do that!" Ryu said clutching his fist in anger.

"F-For a guy who's too cool like him... that's not likely..." Morty began with a forced smile.

"W-Well, that would be the case, but..." Yoh said while sweat-dropping.

"What's with you guys? It's not weird for him to meet a girl and started hanging out with her, right?" Acrein said grinning.

"It is weird! Plus, I should be the one who's hanging out with girls!" Ryu cut in and pointed at himself.

"No, that's too..." Yoh was interrupted when he heard a knock on the door.

"Could it be him?" Morty asked.

"Maybe." Yoh stood up and started to walk out of the room.

"I know it. He's together with a girl," Trey insisted.

"No way he would do that," Yoh replied as he sweat-dropped then went to get the door, leaving the rest of them alone. "Really, what's with their minds, thinking about weird things..."

"Yoh! Open the door quickly!" He suddenly heard Ren's voice from the other side of the door, surprising him.

"R-Right away!" He hurried walking then he saw the door being kicked from the outside.

"Hurry up, slacker!" Ren yelled impatiently. He became a bit irritated and reached the door then opened it.

"Don't just- WHAAAT!?" Yoh exclaimed in shock as he saw Ren carrying someone on his back. The others heard him and went to check out.

"Why are you yelling all of a sudden!?" Ren yelled back in irritation.

"Ah! It really is true! You're hanging out with a girl and then you bring her to the house!?" Yoh exclaimed while putting his hands on his head.

"Huh!?"

"Yoh, what's with the-" The others stopped and stumbled on their tracks when they also saw the same thing.

"Oh my! I was right after all!" Acrein shout out in disbelief.

"What-" Ren was cut off when Trey spoke.

"So you were together with a girl then you bring her here because you're planning to create a miracle!? What on Earth are you-" He couldn't finish his sentence when Ren kicked him on the face, sending him flying backwards and to crash on the end of the room.

"This is not the time to be thinking that, jerk! Can't you see I'm bringing an injured person here!?" he yelled in anger.

"Huh? An injured person?" Yoh asked.

"Put everything aside. Is Faust still here?"

"Why, do you want something?" Faust said as he popped his head out from the living room.

"Can you heal this girl? She's badly hurt," Ren replied as he knelt down and rested.

Yoh and Acrein looked at the girl's face closely then he was surprised when he figured out she's an acquaintance. "Isn't that-" he was cut off by Acrein.

"Eri Azuraki!?"

"So it really is her?" Ren asked as he looked at them both.

"What happened to her!?" Yoh asked worriedly.

"Leave the questions for later. She needs to be treated right away," Faust cut in and walked towards them. "Please bring her to a room."

"All right."

**(5 minutes later)**

Yoh and his friends are standing outside a room while waiting for Faust to be done with his work. Yoh slowly opened the door carefully and peeked inside. Faust is still treating the injured girl. Then he closed the door gently and crossed his arms.

"Is she really that hot-tempered to cause such a big ruckus?" Trey asked.

"P-Probably. Actually, this is the first time I've met a person this scary. What's weirder is that she's a girl," Yoh replied as he sweated. "S-She can't even be compared to Anna."

"Just like you know, girls are really scary creatures," Ren added as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Yoh, maybe you forgot someone who is also hot-headed like Eri. The one who's standing beside you," Acrein said with a mischievous grin.

"Who are you calling hot-headed, huh? Plus, you even compared me to that girl!?" Ren yelled.

"Oh yeah. I forgot," Yoh said with a smile.

"You say something?" Ren asked as his tone changed.

"N-No, never mind."

**-inside the room-**

Faust finished covering all Eri's wounds. He sat down on the floor beside Eri while putting his things away quietly. Then he heard someone spoke from behind him.

"So it was you who healed her wounds?" a woman said. He didn't find that voice familiar and wondered who it was. He turned his head and saw a young woman standing just next to the window. She has long, rose hair, red eyes; she's wearing a white kimono with red and pink linings. She also has a red-sheath katana on her waist.

"I was really right about thinking that this girl is also a shaman. Yes, it was me," Faust replied with a confident smile.

The rose-haired woman closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I sincerely apologize for forcing one of your comrades to help her and to make you get on your way."

"No problem. It's only natural for a doctor to help someone injured. By the way, are you her spirit?"

She raised her head and looked at him. "My name's Sakurazen. Thanks for treating my master."

Suddenly, they heard a faint moan which cut their small talk. Faust looked to his side and saw Eri opening her eyes.

"Looks like you're awake."

Eri turned her head and saw him and the rose-haired woman. "This is?" she asked in a weak voice.

"A friend's house, apparently," Faust replied and smiled at her. Eri sat up and looked down.

"So I've been brought to a stranger's house?" she softly mumbled. Then the room's door suddenly opened, surprising them. Five males stood there, looking at them. Eri only found two of them familiar.

"Guys, I never told you to come in," Faust said.

"E-Eri? You're already awake?" Yoh asked with surprised eyes.

"Yoh Asakura…" Eri murmured while staring at them.

Ren stared at her suspiciously, unnoticed by Eri. _Even though she's badly hurt, she looks like she's all recovered now not including Faust's help. What is she?_

"Yoh, what's the meaning of this?" Eri asked with a serious tone, making them confused.

"Eh? Uh, you were found injured at the street, so we took you in here and healed you," Yoh replied. _I…I don't know why, but I've got a bad feeling about this._

"Huh?" Eri said and stared at him, making Yoh to sweat-drop nervously.

"Actually, this is Yoh's house. It was Ren who brought you here," Acrein suddenly cut in.

"Wh-What are you saying?" Ren said irritated.

They were surprised when they heard a sound of a sword being unsheathed. They returned their attention to Eri and their skin crawled when they saw her unsheathing her sword halfway.

"Why am I carried and brought by a stranger to this house?" Eri said as her tone changed and the blade shone, showing its sharpness.

"What? You expect me to bring you to a hospital? You think you're a girl born rich and special to complain about being treated here?" Ren immediately replied irritated.

"Of all places, why an old-fashioned house like this?" Eri asked.

"Hey, this is not old-fashioned! It's an inn!" Trey cut in also irritated.

"You call this an inn?" Eri replied.

"What the hell are you saying? You should be thankful to us rather than complain," Ren said.

"You should've left me at the street."

"If people caught you lying there, what do you think will happen?"

"What do I think will happen?" Eri said sarcastically.

Ren's eyebrow twitched and glared at her. "Don't mimic me, you short-tempered charcoal."

"If you called me charcoal, then that means you want me to dye you black like a charcoal can do?" Eri glared at him too.

"I can dye you as black as your hair instead, charcoal," Ren said with an irritated smile and the two sent sparks flying into each other's eyes. Yoh and the others just sweat-dropped at them.

"I can't believe another rivalry is born at the first time meeting," Acrein said.

"She really is a fast talker," Yoh added and the rose-haired woman standing right next to the window caught his attention. "Who is she?" She pointed at the woman, also getting her attention.

"I'm her spirit, Sakurazen," the woman replied with no traces of reaction on her face.

Yoh's eyes widen in impression as he observed the woman's appearance. _Whoa, she's a real beauty… _Then a smile crept on his face and a light bulb appeared above his head. _It's not like I fell in love with her, but… she may be a good match for him. This is good. Two spirits matched with each other. Tehee. _Then his smile turned mischievous.

"What are you looking at?" Eri asked out of the blue, making him snap out of his thoughts.

"Uh, n-nothing really!" he replied with a nervous smile.

"Stop that perverted look on your face with my partner," Eri said with a glare.

"I wasn't thinking about anything! I just wanted to say she's n—" Yoh couldn't finish his sentence when Eri's glare made him more nervous. Then he uttered, "…s-she's just… nice?"

"What makes you say that, Master?" Ryu whispered.

"Nice?" Eri said confused. "You're fantasizing, aren't you?"

"Wha- No, I'm not! You're making it sound like I'm a pervert here!" Yoh yelled in embarrassment. Eri's eyes narrowed as she stared dagger at him.

"Young Miss, shall I shut them up?" Sakurazen suddenly butted in and held her katana's hilt. They all moved back in nervousness except for Faust.

"Stay out of this and remain standing there," Eri ordered.

"Anyway, you're still not completely healed and you can't go anywhere with that. I suggest you should stay here until tomorrow," Faust said to Eri with a serious look.

"You're telling me to stay in a house full of boys? What if they'll plan to do something to an innocent girl in the middle of the night?" Eri asked.

"Hey, stop treating us like perverts, get it? Plus, you don't look innocent at all," Ren said annoyed.

"Eri, there's another girl living in here, so you don' have to worry about being alone," Yoh explained with a nervous smile.

"Who, your mother?"

They all sweat-dropped at Eri's question. "N-No, she's… an acquaintance, I think?" Yoh replied while scratching his cheek. Then he felt Trey shook his arm.

"Yoh, what's with that answer? Why not tell her the truth?" Trey whispered.

"She might misunderstand me for something and kill me!" Yoh whispered back as a reply.

"Actually, she's Yoh's girlfriend and she lives with him," Acrein suddenly butt in, making Yoh panic a bit.

"Acrein, what are you saying!?" Yoh exclaimed nervously then looked at Eri. She didn't react at all. Then the whole room was filled with silence.

"So you already have a girl? That's quite rare for a young man like you," Eri said emotionlessly as she closed her eyes. "But to think that she lived with you…"

"Eh… all right. But to tell the truth, she's more than that for me." Yoh sighed.

"More? You mean you're married?"

They all stumbled to the floor in shock as they heard Eri's guess. Yoh stood up and yelled while blushing, "That's too much 'more'! You really think I'm already married at my age!? I mean, she's more than a girlfriend, but less than a wife!"

` "Oh, then she's your fiancé?"

"Good, you found out," he replied as a sweat drop from his head.

"Then it's settled. You will stay here for the night and leave whenever you want. Unfortunately, Anna's not back yet so you can stay in the vacant room," Faust said and stood up then went out of the room. Eri looked away and replied with a 'hmp'.

"I don't blame you for not liking to stay at someone you just met but..." Yoh began as he went back to his usual self. "You should at least try to be friendly with people."

"With that cute face of yours, you may be able to attract guys like- Ow!" Ryu grabbed his aching foot after Ren stepped on it. "What was that for!?"

"For your disgusting habits," Ren replied with closed eyes.

"Fine. I'll stay here. But if you'll do something that's out of my taste, I'll cut your necks." Eri put her sword down and checked her wounds.

"As you wish, your highness," Trey and Acrein replied in unison.

"Address me normally. I hate nicknames," Eri immediately said as she looked at the duo.

"Then as you wish, Eri," the two said coolly.

"Now you're pissing me off," Eri said as her eyes narrowed, making them stop. "For now, can you leave me alone?" She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Okay. Good night then," Yoh replied with a smile and turned his back against her and walked out of the room with the others, except for Ren. He watched the four left then returned his gaze at the black-haired girl who is sitting while her eyes closed.

"What does the word 'alone' mean to you, huh?" Eri asked, breaking the short silence.

"I thought you would say 'get out of here' instead. You're pretty weird," Ren replied.

"Hmp. You're the weirdo here."

"What were you doing to receive those injuries?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Doing my daily routine. Why, got a problem with that?" She looked to her side, crossing her arms.

"That's not the answer I wanted to hear, charcoal. That thing that attacked you was a spirit." He gritted his teeth in irritation.

"I know, so?" She opened one of her eyes and raised her eyebrow as she looked at him.

"So… you say? You didn't even care about it? Getting into fights recklessly is something a girl won't do."

"Just leave and join your other crewmates, please." She rested her elbow at her knee and leaned on her palm.

"Ignoring everything I said… Whatever." He turned his back against him and was about to take a step when she said something that caught his attention.

"Thanks for earlier… I forgot to say," she stammered and immediately lied down and covered herself with a blanket.

Ren was a bit surprised to hear that. He didn't expect to hear a 'thank you' from a stranger who's so arrogant, ignorant, and short-tempered. He just nodded his head and didn't look back, ignoring the thoughts. "At least you know how to thanks people." He closed the door gently and left to go back to the others.

Eri kept staring at the wall facing her as she put rested her head on her arm. She can hardly sleep with her injuries stinging her other arm and neck. She closed her eyes and decided to have some sleep when she suddenly heard her spirit talked.

"I kinda like that boy. He's pretty cool," Sakurazen said with a teasing voice.

"Well, I don't," Eri replied stonily.

"Young Miss, come on. You've already reached the age of getting a boyfriend."

"I don't like to have any friends, much more a boyfriend."

"Eh? What a closed person you are. But I think I understand you."

"Just shut up, or do you want to kneel on thousands of sharp stones?" she said as her tone changed.

"Please do," her spirit replied bravely.

"Sigh, whatever. Don't bug me until I fall asleep." She pulled her blanket and covered her head, waiting to fall into a deep slumber.


	8. C7 Mystery

**Chapter 7: Mystery**

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews again, I forgot to say in the last chapter. And to Moo (?), thank you so much for reviewing. **

**I don't really have more to say except… here's Chapter 7! Enjoy!**

**(unknown place)**

"Master, I've completed my mission," the green-haired girl said as she knelt on one knee and bowed her head to the silver-haired girl sitting on a rock with her back faced to her.

The cold night wind blew gently, making the girl's silver hair sway swiftly. A smile crept on her lips as she nodded her head in satisfaction. She opened her eyelids, revealing her bloody red eyes. "So? How did it go?" She asked in a nice voice.

"It goes correctly just as you said. I've had a bit of a hard time dealing with her. I saw her powers flowed through her sword, destroying everything on its way the moment she waved it."

"That's… interesting. I've been waiting for years to make her improve herself. Okay, you're free to go. Thanks for the work." She smirked afterwards.

The green-haired girl raised her head and smiled at her. "Yes, miss." She immediately disappeared from her spot like she teleported.

The silver-haired girl is left alone in the place. Once again, the wind blew and she took a deep breath and let it out. She put her hands behind her and leaned on her arms as she stared at the starry night sky. Then the silence was broke by a voice behind her.

"You've really got a nasty way of getting into people's way," a boy said who's leaning on a tree with his arms crossed. He was standing a few meters away from her.

"Oh? That's nasty? Don't forget that that's what you also did to others… onii-chan," she replied with a smirk, not looking back.

"Don't call me that, whitey. I'm just telling you my opinion about you."

"Really? So you're criticizing me about my own ways of doing things? I only tried your ways of butting into people's business to see if it's interesting."

"I don't want to hear that from you." He stood straight and faced her. She looked back and gave him a smile.

"Oh, I guess… you regretted doing that to innocent people because you learned your own lessons?"

"What did you say?" he asked as he's starting to get irritated with her.

"Don't tell me you're starting to stand up for him because you admitted your defeat? Now you're starting to act like a real elder sibling."

His eyes narrowed as she's starting to get in his nerves. He gave her an 'I'm going to kill you' look but she completely ignored it.

Her smile turned into evil as she looked at his eyes. Then she continued to tease him. "I bet you feel bad to yourself for not… avenging her… right?"

His eyes widen in chagrin after hearing that from her. He didn't want to hear that at this time, especially from her. He clenched his teeth and fists in anger. "Shut up…" he murmured softly.

"I was right after all… But, what does it feel to possess something precious to you and lose it afterwards?" She said teasingly as her eyes narrowed in amusement while watching his reaction.

"Shut up…" he muttered again.

Her smile widened and tried to say something to amuse herself. "Your… sweet little…" she began.

He raised his head, his eyes flashing in anger and yelled, "SHUT THAT IMPUDENT MOUTH OF YOURS!" The silver-haired girl's body suddenly set into fire by his power. Then the fire became larger, burning everything surrounding it.

"That's hot, you know?" He heard the girl's voice said much to his surprise then the fire slowly rose into the air and gathered into the girl's palm until it shrunk into a ball's size. She remained unharmed. Her skin is still completely white, her dress and hair unburned. He was not the least surprised for he already knows her ability but that makes him disappointed.

"Feeling down for being powerless? Well, since you lost your so-called famous power that even adds to your disappointment, right?" She said with a smirk and the small ball of fire on her palm vanished. Then she jumped off the rock and walked towards him. He closed his eyes and nodded his head in frustration. She went to his side and whispered to his ear, "I'm going to eliminate everyone who gets on my way… especially that little brother of yours who's with her this time."

He didn't react and remained standing. She continued walking and went pass to his side with her smile still on her face. Then he said softly to her while not looking back, "You can't defeat Yoh and his friends, remember that."

She stopped walking and looked up above. "I would say opposite to you. Useless emotions don't work on me unlike you who lose because of that."

"I know Yoh. He doesn't give up in doing anything if it's for his friends. You can't beat him," he replied confidently.

"Is that so? Then if I kill first those surrounding him, he will give up because he won't have anyone to protect, am I right?"

"As if you can."

Her smile disappeared and stared at him. Then she let out a small giggle, getting his attention. "You've really changed too much than your usual self. Well, let's just find out sooner or later." She walked away, leaving him standing alone there.

He let out a sigh of exhaustion and calmed down. Then he whispered softly, "Please don't leave her alone... Yoh…"

His voice echoed through an unknown darkness.

****XX****

_"Why? You would never do such a thing, yet… why?" a boy's asked in disbelief in the darkness._

_ "Humans are so easy to trick… I guess that's their weakness…" a girl replied coldly. Different voices are suddenly heard around the darkness. Some are crying, some are laughing, and some sounded sad and depressed._

_ "I always wanted to stay with all of you… but I can't do it," a crying voice of a girl said. Then another one cut in._

_ "We're going to hold her back from doing it. Until that, please don't die on us!" a voice of a boy said._

_ "Please watch over her and see her smile… for me. I'm counting on you… for her…" a girl's smothered voice said._

_ "Yoh… Yoh!"_

_****XX****_

Yoh opened his eyes in a second, meeting the ceiling. He stared at the ceiling blankly for a few seconds then he sat up as he felt the cold wind blew inside the room. He realized that the window was open, letting the wind blow inside.

He looked to his side and a satisfied smile appeared on his face as he saw his friends sleeping and snoring loud. Morty was sleeping beside him while being used as a pillow for Trey's foot. Acrein was next to Trey, snoring loud, while the last one was Ren, who's lying with his back faced to them and his head on his arm. He couldn't tell he's asleep at his position. Yoh stood up and went out of the room, thinking that he needed some water and left them alone.

Ren irritatingly covered his ears because of the person snoring right next to him. "Tch, damn it. Why won't he stop snoring? If only I could stuff his mouth with a pillow…" he mumbled to himself as he grabbed a pillow.

Suddenly, Acrein sat up with eyes still closed, making him surprised. Then he suddenly said, "Where did my pillow go?"

A nerve snapped on Ren's head and shoved the pillow he's holding into his face angrily, making him lie on the floor hard. "Just shut your mouth and sleep quietly, you metal freak!" he yelled angrily. Suddenly, Acrein fell asleep again and started snoring loud, making him to get irritated more. "I said… shut your mouth!" he yelled and pushed the pillow harder.

****XX****

Yoh went out of the kitchen after getting what he needed and slowly headed back to the room. A confused look appeared on his face as he thought deeply. _What was that weird dream about? I feel like many people are calling me but I couldn't hear them clearly. Plus, that weird presence I felt earlier and Eri's injuries… what was that all about?_

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt the wind blow inside the living room through an open door. He stopped and saw something behind the curtains. The curtain gently flew and he saw a black-haired girl sitting on the porch quietly, looking at the sky. _What's Eri doing outside?_

He took a step back and stepped on a piece of paper, creating a soft cracking sound. This caught Eri's attention and turned her head and saw him standing.

"Ah, I was just passing by… S-Sorry I disturbed you…" Yoh said nervously as he waved his hands in front of him.

Eri stared at him blankly then returned her gaze to the sky without a word. Yoh stared at her curiously. Then he spoke up. "What are you doing here? It's still night."

"Can't you tell what I'm doing with your own eyes?" Eri asked emotionlessly, not looking at him. Yoh felt a sweat drop from his head.

"S-Stargazing?" he replied with a sweat-drop.

"So you can guess."

"It's the middle of the night. Can't you sleep?"

"I can hardly sleep in an unfamiliar place. Plus, the skies are clear and it's a starry night."

There was a short moment of silence between them then he broke it. "Can I… join you?"

It took a few seconds before Eri answered, "Go ahead."

Yoh went to the porch and sat down a meter away from her. He smiled as he looked up above and saw many stars shining in the sky. "Hey Eri, can I ask something?"

"What?"

"Did you join the Grand Shaman Tournament?" he asked without any hesitation.

"I did, but I failed at the first try." She replied without any trace of depression in her voice. Yoh was a bit surprised at her answer.

"You… failed at the first preliminary?" he asked in disbelief.

"When one of the Guardians, Silva tested me. I failed at that time."

"So Silva was the one who test you? But… after seeing your power yesterday, I thought you can't be defeated."

"It's not like I actually failed. I did it on purpose."

"Huh? You… failed on purpose? Why? That was a great chance to…" he trailed off as he could hardly believe everything she said. He can't even see a trace of emotion on her face which confused him more.

"I don't have any reason to participate anyway. After all, there are so many shamans in the world to compete with. I'm already sure I won't be picked," Eri replied casually as she closed her eyes.

"W-Well… it's worth a try. Even Anna forced me into hell training just to become stronger to grab the title of the Shaman King…" Yoh said with a smile.

"But I went there. At Patch Village."

"Huh!?" Yoh exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's when I saw you and recognized that you are Hao Asakura's twin brother." She looked at him with serious eyes.

"H-Hao? You... met him? Don't tell me you ran into him?"

"Yes. I know everything about him from the other people. The great shaman who planned to earn the title of Shaman King to take the Great Spirits… and create a new world for only shamans… right?" She continued to stare at Yoh, making him feel nervous all of a sudden. "I've got to admit his idea is quite nice and crazy."

"E-Eri… did he… recruit you to join his team?" Yoh asked as he made a 'slight' gulp.

"Yeah, he did. But I simply refused and he left me alone. That's all."

"I…I can't believe you're still alive after that… Normally, he would kill anyone who acts against him. Yet… why? "

"Yoh, you mean you wanted me to die?" she asked in an irritated voice.

"Wha- of course not! Why would I want that? I was just surprised that you were able to handle his personality," he replied then laughed nervously while scratching his head. Eri remained staring at him with her dark-red eyes.

She closed her eyes and looked away. "Yoh, why do you think shamans or some people can see spirits?"

"H-Huh?" Yoh asked, surprised at her question. "T-That's because… according to my grandpa, only good people can see spirits…" he looked at Eri with surprised and confused eyes.

"To tell my opinion about him, he's not as bad as the people say about him. I know he's actually good deep down inside."

"That's what I thought at first too. But he has killed so many innocent people."

"Indeed. But he's quite a jerk too. Well, I don't really care about other people's business. That was just my point of view to him." Eri shrugged her shoulders and looked up to the sky. Yoh stared at her for a while then decided to ask again.

"Eri, why did you fail on purpose?"

She kept on staring at the sky for a long time. Then she replied, "I have my own reasons. Something that you shouldn't know."

"Why not…?" he trailed off as he saw Eri's serious expression. _Well, I guess every people have their own stories._

"I'm going back home." She stood up from the porch and took her sword beside her.

"Eh? Now? In the middle of the night?" Yoh asked as he thought of the consequences.

"I can't sleep here for the next 6 hours. I feel much better when I'm at home. Plus, your friend snoring in your room is too loud that it reaches my ears."

A sweat dropped from his head as he smiled nervously. "O-Oh, is that so? Well, be careful in your way then. You might cause another explosion just because of a single dog snarling at you," he said jokingly.

"You bet. A dog is already snarling at me and he's sitting in front of me," Eri said with a glare and raised her sword.

"That was just a joke! Don't take it seriously!"

"Bye, then." She started to walk away while Yoh just watched her. He looked up above and saw a shooting star passed by. He stood up and headed back to his room. He slowly opened the door with closed eyes and…

"Stop your stupid snoring, you metal freak!" he suddenly heard Ren's voice. The moment he opened his eyes, a pillow came flying to him and hit him hard on the face, making him to lose balance and fell to the floor with his red face.

"Why… me?" he mumbled then passed out afterwards.

_**A/N: Done! Okay, maybe I changed my mind. Some SK characters had their names replaced by their English dubbed version by me in this story and I also said that I will also change Hao's but… I think it doesn't fit well in the story. But please don't flame me! If you have any suggestions, comments, and anything else, please drop a review. I would appreciate it.**_

_**Look forward to the next chapter! **___


	9. C8 Missing Something

**Chapter 8: Missing Something**

**A/N: Hello, here's Chapter 8! I hope you like this one. Note: I think the next update will be in Saturday since I'm not going to be free in weekdays 'cause it's school day.**

**Now on with the story!**

It was a sunny morning. The condition at the school is still normal. At the backyard, Yoh is sitting alone at his favorite bench, letting his head hang on the bench's back. He raised his head and covered his face. "T-That Ren sure knows how to throw things… it really hurts for just a pillow," he mumbled to himself in vex as he removed his hands from his face. Suddenly, two hands appeared in front of him and covered his eyes.

"Guess who this is. If you don't, I'll make you a slave for Her Highness…" a cheerful voice said behind him.

"The short brown-haired girl who always tripped on a tree's root, named Eurin Nishizaki, right?" Yoh replied vexed as he removed the hands on his eyes.

"Oh, that's a weird answer, the brown-haired boy who's always wearing headphones for nothing, Yoh Asakura!" Eurin said with a smile as she pointed at him.

"What do you mean 'for nothing'? And don't mimic me- eh? he turned light red as he realized Eurin's face is only an inch away from him. He raised his head in an instant, hitting her forehead hard. "D-Don't just appear in front of me like that!"

"And don't just raise your head like that, idiot!" Eurin exclaimed as she held her red forehead.

"It's your fault!" he yelled as he held his forehead too. "A-Are you trying to seduce me?"

"No, I don't! I only came here to check on someone!" she yelled as her cheeks turned red.

"And that someone is me?" he said as his eyes narrowed and pointed at himself.

"Huh? You're not together?"

"What do you mean? Oh, Eri, you mean. No, I'm the only one here." He closed his eyes and leaned on the bench again.

"Man, she has stopped hanging out here ever since you took over her favorite place," she said in a bit disappointed tone then narrowed her eyes at Yoh. "You thief…"

"Hey, I didn't steal anything, all right?"

"This is Eri's favorite hang-out place. She doesn't like crowded places that's why she felt contented being here."

"For your info, I never stole this place and I only hang out here to chill myself. By the way, have you seen her earlier?"

"Huh? Yeah, she went to class earlier but… do you know what happened to her?" She gave him a curious look.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Hm… she's got bandage on some parts of her body. Don't tell me she joined another rumble?"

"K-Kinda like that…" Yoh replied with a smile. Then they both heard a conversation of some girls inside the classroom which caught their attention.

"That Eri sure is a drag. Last time when I only bumped into her accidentally, she glared at me," one of the girls said irritated.

"I hate her too. She's so full of herself when she thinks she's got everyone's attention in this place," another one added.

"Same goes for me. That look on her face always pisses me off," the last one said as she put her hands on her waist.

Yoh stared at the three girls unnoticed after hearing their conversation. He felt bad for Eri being badmouthed and avoided by some people. But whenever he looked at Eri, she doesn't seem to be troubled by it which makes him confused.

"Those monkeys are talking about Eri again. It's their own fault for being low and pride to themselves," Eurin said as she crossed her arms, glaring at the three girls inside the room.

"That's pretty rude too but… if only Eri could be friendlier, she wouldn't be defamed by everyone," Yoh said as he looked at her, seeing her getting angry with those girls.

"Well, you do have a point but… Eri's not the type that easily gets along with people."

"Yeah. She should be open to them, like, you know… uh…" he trailed off as he put his thumb under his chin and thought deeply.

Eurin put her arms on the bench's back and leaned on them. "Yoh, have you ever seen Eri smile?"

"Huh?" He looked at Eurin with surprised eyes. He didn't expect to hear that question. "N-Now that you mention it, I haven't. Her face is always blank, and she usually gives people stares. I haven't seen her laugh or smile at least."

She closed her eyes and smiled. "Neither am I. A person like her is something you don't see every day, don't you think? She can't even pretend to laugh or smile. That's very rare."

"Y-Yeah, you're right."

"But I think I understand… why she's like that…" Her voice suddenly changed into a sad tone at that sentence. Yoh looked at her with a confused look. "She always drives people away and hangs out in lonely places like a loner. She said that she likes being alone but I know that deep down, she's kinda… hurt. She must have some problems that she didn't want innocent people to get involved."

"T-That means, last night…" Yoh's eyes widen as their talk with Eri last night came into his mind.

_I failed the first preliminary on purpose. It's something you shouldn't know..._

"Maybe that's what she meant…" He looked at the ground as he realized what she was talking about. Suddenly, voices started echoing in his mind.

_"I always wanted to stay with all of you… but I can't do it!"_

_ "Please watch over her and see her smile… for me… I'm counting on you… for her sake…"_

Yoh flinched as he instantly raised his head in shock, making Eurin to move back in surprise. He found those voices familiar. "Wh-What was that?"

"What's wrong, Yoh?" Eurin asked, catching his attention. She looked at him with confused eyes.

"N-Nothing! Never mind me!" he replied with a nervous smile while scratching his head.

"You're acting weird all of a sudden." She raised her eyebrow in suspicion.

"I told you it's nothing!"

"You weir-do…" Eurin moved her face closer to Yoh with a suspicious look on her face, making him to back off nervously. Unknown to them, a person is walking towards them quietly.

"Hey, slacker," the person said as she stopped walking.

"Huh?" The two looked behind and saw a short blonde, girl wearing a school uniform, looking at them blankly. Yoh's eyes narrowed as a drop of sweat fell from his head.

"Time to go back. Now," the girl said as she crossed her arms.

"Who's that?" Eurin asked.

"For what?" Yoh replied immediately, ignoring Eurin's question.

"Work… and training."

"Not with those two words again!" He yelled as he stood up and stomped his foot like a child throwing tantrums.

"Hey, who's that?" Eurin asked again while staring at the girl.

"No complaints. Perhaps you forgot that the training the other day was postponed because I came home late so you're going to do it now, 10 times like I said."

"WHAT!?"

"If you complain more, it would be 100 times harder."

"You're still at it!? Why don't you just spare me?" he whined as a waterfall of tears came out from his eyes.

Vein popped on Eurin's head as she was being ignored by these two. Not long, she cut in their conversation. "Hey Yoh, I asked you who is she, and what's with this training anyway?" she asked irritated as she glared at Yoh.

"Oh wait. I forgot I was still talking to someone." Yoh scratched his head as he smiled at her.

"Who is she, Yoh? Your new friend?" the girl asked casually.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to each other. This girl is Eurin Nishizaki, Eri's best friend, you know. Eurin, she's Anna Kyouyama," he introduced as he pointed at them one after another.

"Pleased to meet you," Eurin said with her usual smile while scratching her head shyly.

"I'm Anna, Yoh's fiancé," the girl replied coolly.

"What!? Anna, you shouldn't have said that!" Yoh exclaimed.

"Oh, I see- wait, WHAT!?" Eurin exclaimed in shock as she put her hands on her head. "C-Come again? F-Fiance, you say?"

"Figured out much," Yoh said as he dropped his shoulders. Suddenly, Eurin grabbed his collar and choked him like a madman.

"Yoh! You never told me you already had a girlfriend! That's unfair! Couldn't you at least wait for a few years before you would propose to her!?" Eurin asked madly.

"Th-That's not it! It's not like that!" Yoh yelled back as a reply as he removed her hands from his collar.

"You're not just a thief or a weirdo but also…" she said with a suspicious look as she leaned near to his ear and whispered softly. "…a pervert."

"I'm so not! Stop that weird look on your face!" He moved back as he began to get annoyed with this talk.

"Anyway, let's go home together. I'll be waiting for you at the gate," Anna cut in then turned her back against them and walked away. Eurin whitened out and froze on her spot while Yoh remained standing stiff.

"You also live together? Answer me," she said in a deep tone with an evil smile and a dark aura.

"Y-Yeah, we do. But isn't that just normal for us?"

"It is normal for soon-to-be couples…. but not for your young and still delicate kinds! Pervert!" Eurin exclaimed and ran away, pretending to cry like a child.

"I'm not a pervert, you mongrel!" Yoh yelled in annoyance then suddenly stopped. "D-Did I just say… mongrel? That's quite a rude nickname for her…"

"Cheater!" Eurin yelled while running away.

"I'm not!

"Twisted!"

"Am not! Oh great, my throat has dried up now…" He held his throat aching a bit. Then he heard Eurin yelled in the distance again.

"I'm going to tell Eri that you're just nothing but a mere twisted pervert!"

Vein popped on his head in annoyance as he clutched his fist and slowly raising it. "Fine! Say anything you want! Mongrel!" he shouted out as he stomped his feet. He looked at the distance and saw that Eurin is no longer there. He sighed as he went back to sit down. "What a bunch of annoying people… Ren was right. Girls are really troublesome," he said to himself with a smile. Then he heard running footsteps closing from his side but he didn't look back.

"Yo… slacker! Eat my Tiger Flying Claw!" a familiar voice of a boy yelled to him. Yoh remained confident and simply raised his head and the boy went passed through in front of him and crashed on a nearby tree.

"Hey Acrein, do tigers fly?" Yoh asked calmly as he looked at the dark blue-haired boy hugging the tree.

"Th-That's the second time you dodged it… incredible…" the boy mumbled as he slid down from the tree.

"You were being obvious. You're so easy to dodge."

"Huh? Then how about this?" Acrein stood up from the ground and jumped towards Yoh. He spun while in midair and was about to land a kick on Yoh when he blocked it with his wrist in split second. He grinned at him and said, "I think you've gotten stronger this time."

"I would say the same to you," Yoh replied with a grin and jumped back. Acrein landed on the ground gently and looked at him.

"I was thinking Yoh, that how about we have a duel next time? Too bad we're at school. I actually wanted to start now," Acrein said as he wiped his face with his wrist.

"But I think it's not the time for that today," Yoh answered as he looked away for a moment then returned his gaze to him with a grin. "But I'll surely fight you again."

"That's what I'm talking about." Acrein raised his thumb in front of him and they laughed both.

"Oh, man! I forgot Anna's still waiting for me. Gotta go!" Yoh exclaimed in panic as he started to run away. "Later, Acrein!" he said as he waved at his friend.

'Yup. Good luck with your date!" Acrein said with a grin.

As Yoh kept on running in hurry, he passed by a large oak tree and caught a glimpse of a black-haired girl behind it. He thought it was who he thinks it was but he also saw the person carrying a white parasol. He decided to ignore it and kept running. _That's weird. Since when did Eri carry a parasol with her?_

The girl behind the tree came out from behind the tree and watched the brown-haired boy running towards the school gate and meets with a blond girl standing outside the gate. "Asakura… that's him?" she asked herself emotionlessly.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late," Yoh said as he panted heavily.

"No, I just got here. I just came from getting my bag. Now let's go?" Anna turned back and looked at the road with no reaction.

"Y-Yes ma'am…"

"Wait! Can I join you?" a boy yelled from behind them. They saw a short boy running towards them, carrying a book.

"Oh, it's fine. Now can we go?" Yoh asked as he looked at Anna.

"That's what I just said." She nodded her head and started walking, leaving them behind.

"Yoh, don't tell me you will do another hard work?" Morty asked with a concerned look.

"I think so. Man, my poor life… Huh?" He turned around and saw that the girl behind the oak tree has disappeared. He felt a bit anxious after seeing that girl. Then he shook his head a few times to snap out. _No, no, no. Maybe I'm just seeing things. There's no way Eri would carry a parasol and act all girly. Or maybe, that was another person…_

"I'm going ahead, Yoh!" he heard his friend said which caught his attention. He followed him and completely ignored all the thoughts. Unknown to him, Eurin is watching him secretly behind the wall with a vexed look. "Twisted…" she mumbled.

**A****/N: I'm done. Okay, I was always thinking this but I think there's just something wrong with some of the characters… although I don't know what it is (or am I just imagining things?) So please tell me if some are OOC. And don' forget to review!**

**See ya next time!**


	10. C9 A Hothead, now a Stalker?

**Chapter 9: A Hothead, Now A Stalker?**

**A/N: Hi! Here's Chapter 9. I got to update this one today since I just found a chance to open the laptop and use the Internet because there are no classes today.**

**To Moo (?): Thank you for keeping up with my story. I'm glad you like it. And also, thanks for telling me about Yoh's character. I read what you said in your first review but I just ignored it, sorry. Now that it comes to this, I also became bothered with Yoh's character, even if I was the one made him like that. But some of those times, I made him freak out in purpose, but I guess that also bothers you too. So from now on, I'll fix Yoh's character in my story… little by little. Thanks again!**

**Now on with the story!**

*****XX*****

**(in an unknown place)**

A girl with a dark blue hair tied in twintail blankly stared at the large tall pillar in front of her. The pillar is surrounded by circles of metal poles that stood as fence. A smile appeared on her face as she took a pinwheel with shiny steel blades from her black shorts' pocket. She raised her right hand in the air and mumbled softly. "Chimerin…"

The wind around her became stronger and moved then gathered around her hand. For a split second, an ultra-thin laser rose into the sky. One second has passed and a clean mark appeared on the pillar and it cut in half then collapsed, causing the dusts to fly away. Then two huge spinning metal wheels connected with a pair of chains came out from the clouds of dust and passed through the metal poles, cutting them in half at the same time. The chains stopped extending and were pulled back by a strong force. The whole place became clear again and the only one left standing in the area is the dark blue-haired girl holding the pair of huge wheels glowing in purple light by the chains.

She sighed when the wind blew moderately strong, making her twintail hair flew backwards. Then a smile cracked on her face.

"Working hard as always, huh?" a voice rang from behind her. She turned around to see a dark blue-haired boy standing there with crossed arms, grinning at her.

"I'm just testing out a new move," she replied as she put her huge wheel on her shoulder. "By the way, how are they?" she asked, changing the topic.

"Hm… good as always. They still didn't change. I was planning to visit them again today…" he said as he cupped his chin, thinking.

"Yoh Asakura, huh?" she muttered as her smile widened.

****XX****

Yoh let out a sigh as he walked down the road side, carrying a bag of groceries. "Jeez, yesterday, a hellish training and now, grocery shopping? Anna doesn't really know how to measure one's hard work…" he mumbled in exhaustion but continued walking without any more complaints.

As he was walking, he caught a glimpse of something white on the other side of the road. He turned around and his eyes widen in surprise as she saw a black-haired girl standing in front of a bookstore, holding a white parasol. "I-Isn't that… No, no, no." He shook his head a few times and closed his eyes. "I've been recently seeing that girl in parasol that looks like Eri but… what the—" he said when he opened his eyes and the parasol girl has disappeared. He slapped his forehead and said, "Great, now I'm starting to see a ghost that looks like Eri…"

"What do you mean by 'look like me'?" a girl said from his behind, making him jump back in surprise. It was Eri, in his thought, the real Eri. She's wearing her red jacket and blue mini-skirt and her crystal bells on her hair.

"E-Eri? Wh-What are you doing here?" He asked in disbelief.

"Standing in front of you, of course. What does it look like I'm doing?" she replied casually.

"Huh? Weren't you just standing over there with a… parasol?" he said as he pointed in front of the bookstore.

"I was walking on this side all the time. And what do you mean by a parasol?"

Yoh felt a sweat drop from his head and dropped his shoulders. He sighed in distress and closed his eyes. _So it was really just a ghost. Why does it keep following me all the time? Or am I just really fantasizing? Wait, lately, I've been always thinking about Eri. Was I… No,no, no, no! That's not it! _He shook his head and snapped out of it.

"You really are fantasizing, aren't you?" Eri asked with a slight tone of irritation, making him flinch. She grabbed her sword from nowhere and raised it in front of her. "Don't tell me you're starting to imagine me bringing girly things in public and act all lady-like?"

"No, no, of course not. I must've mistaken that girl from earlier as you 'cause you look the same…" Yoh explained immediately and laughed awkwardly. _A-Awesome. She can read minds!_

"I'm not someone who easily gets affected by trivial things such as the heat of the sun like all girls are and bring useless stuffs such as parasols and lotions. Don't think I'm that low," Eri added while staring at him.

"All right, all right. I get it. Well, where are you going?" he asked immediately to change the subject.

Eri put her sword down and sighed. "I'm just taking a walk to chill myself. I'm going now." She started walking away and went to his side. Then she stopped after a few steps, making Yoh confused. "I'm already aware that you're a fantasist. Eurin told me that you're twisted-minded," she said without looking back and continued walking.

Yoh's eyebrows twitched in irritation after hearing that. "So Eurin really did tell her? What a dumb. I said that I'm not twisted. Sheesh, she never listens." He decided to ignore the thoughts and went back to walking.

When he almost reached home, he felt a bit uncomfortable when he realized that someone is following him. And that person has been following him ever since their talk with Eri earlier. That person looks like a stalker, in his thought. He took a step back then walked in a fast speed. After a few steps, he immediately stopped and looked back and his eyes caught a suspicious-looking cloth of a person behind an electric post. He started running again and looked back in an instant, then there it is again. This scene repeated until he reached the outside of his house. A smile appeared on his face and put his things down and he disappeared from his spot.

The person hiding behind the fence of the inn became surprised when she saw that Yoh disappeared. She came out from the hiding place and looked around. "Where did he go?"

"So there you are, stalker-san," she heard Yoh's voice from behind her and let out a small 'eek'. She turned around and stepped back when she saw him smiling evilly and had his arms crossed. "You know, I hate being stalked by strangers, get it?"

"Eh? I-Is that so?" she asked in a smothered voice then, in an instant, her expression switched from nervousness to irritation. To Yoh's surprise, she jumped at him and wrapped her arms on his neck from behind and choked him. "Who are you calling a stranger, huh!? Calling me like that even if you know me!" she yelled angrily.

"W-Wait! I can't breathe! Let go!" Yoh exclaimed as he tried to escape from her grasp. She let go of him and he knelt on the ground, coughing.

"Huh? What, still at it?" the girl said with an irritated smile while crossing her arms.

"Wh-What do you mean by… I know you?" Yoh looked at her carefully with a confused look. "Wait a minute…" He raised his eyebrow and smirked, irritating her more. "Now I know why I felt the same uncomfortable feeling lately," he said mischievously as he slowly got up from the ground. He grinned and pointed at her then exclaimed, "So it was the metal twintail-haired perverted stalker who was stalking me from earlier!"

"What do you mean by perverted stalker, you slacker!?" the girl yelled out loudly.

"There are no other people here aside from you… Si-li-ca…" Yoh said teasingly.

A furious look formed on the girl's face and beat him in a second. Yoh lied down on the ground beaten while the girl remained standing before him.

"Hmp, perhaps you should do something with your manner of messing my name, you imbecile." She said with a scary glare while raising her fist.

With a quick recovery, Yoh raised his head and looked at her with a forced smile. "W-Well, why did you came here?"

"Oh yeah. Listen, I'm not stalking you, all right? I was following you because you might know where Acrein went off. Or is he hanging out with you?"

"Y-Yeah, that's right…"

Silica let out a sigh and dropped her shoulders. "Well, could you just please tell him to go back home? He said that he was going to visit you again but he's kinda late now…"

"Why don't you go check on him? We're already outside of the house!" Yoh exclaimed like a kid refusing a parent's order.

"I don't have time for that. Bye then." She already walked away while waving her hand. Yoh reached out his hand to her but she's already far away. He let out a sigh and picked up the bag of groceries on the ground with a tired expression. "Sigh… what a rough day this is…"

"So you know that girl?" Amidamaru suddenly popped out on his side, not the least surprised he is.

"Since she's Acrein's little sister, of course I know her. But I don't like her. She's way too sensitive when it comes to trivial romantic scenes. Even if she only sees a boy and girl talking alone, she will eavesdrop and then starts stalking them. I even call her… the 'Queen of Stalkers'! And the proof of that is that when she stalked me earlier after my talk with Eri!"

His spirit sweat dropped at what he said. Then they were interrupted when someone called them from behind. They turned around and paled when a blonde girl stood up straight in front of them with her hands crossed.

"U-Um… if you're gonna ask why I'm late, I only ran into someone…." Yoh immediately blurted out.

"I'm not gonna say that. I already know. You don't have to worry about work 'cause I'll let you off this time. By the way, dinner's already prepared so come in," she said without any expression then turned her back and went back inside.

"That's strange… Anna's a bit nice to me right now…." Yoh said to himself surprised a bit. Then his carefree smile came back to his face. "Well, worry not. Let's go in, Amidamaru." He went inside too while his samurai spirit followed before him.

As he entered the living room, he was a bit surprised to see that Acrein's not present and so is Ren. His friends greeted him with a 'hello' as he sat down beside his best friend. "I wonder why it was so quiet when I came in…." he said to them.

"Oh, you're talking about them? They've gone to work," Trey replied with a smile while waving his hand.

"Work? What?" Yoh asked confused.

"Don't know, but Miss Anna just sent them to get something for her. Not really a big deal," Ryu said.

Yoh sweat dropped when something crossed his mind. "So that's why she let me off for today…."

***XX***

**A/N: And the last main character is introduced…. Silica Yuroku. ^^ Sorry if this chapter is short and boring but please tell me what you think and review. And thanks to those who followed or favorited my story, I forgot to say. There will be a little bit action in the next chapter.**


	11. Character's Profile

**I decided to put up a characters' profile so that you can have any idea of what my OC would be like.**

**Characters' Profile**

**1. Eri Azuraki**

**Age**: 14

**Gender**: Female

**Spirit**: Sakurazen, a shrine maiden (real name is Sachiro Mikazuchi)

**Medium**: a sword with red sheath (Hell Angel's Fang)

**Spirit Control**: Her sword's blade turns crimson red and a metallic wing grows on one side of its hilt. She also has a special move called Seven Slash Dance.

**Outfit**: Red coat with white line on across the sleeves and white blouse underneath, paired with a blue mini-skirt. She wears a pair of black knee socks and brown shoes at first as her footwear, then changed it into brown boots. She also wears two small crystal bells on her hair, a gift from Shiro.

**Physical Appearance**: Long, silky dark hair that she wears loose, dark red eyes, light tan skin and almost has the same height as Ren.

**Personality**: She's calm, quiet and doesn't express any emotion most of the times and doesn't smile. She has a strong-willed and blunt personality. Serious and smart-headed, especially when it comes to fight; sometimes hot-tempered. She's loyal to her comrades but doesn't show any friendly attitude to them.

**2. Eurin Nishizaki**

**Age**: 14

**Gender**: Female

**Spirit**: Harechi, a pixie-like spirit which its outfit looks like a bee's appearance.

**Medium**: two rings with a Topaz gem on top of each

**Spirit Control**: The gems on her rings turn into sunbursts and can create strong and highly defensive barriers. She can also create explosive orbs on thin air or in any kind of objects that ranges 50 meters away from her.

**Oufit:** a sleeveless white blouse with sailor collar with orange edges and an orange necktie, paired with orange shorts. For her footwear, she wears white shoes with orange edges and short white socks.

**Physical Appearance**: Short light brown hair (a small portion of her hair is tied at the right side of her head), black eyes, and fair skin. Has the same height as Eri.

**Personality**: She has a very bright and cheerful attitude (almost like totally annoying) and also carefree. However, she becomes serious and prepared in any kinds of fights. Treats Eri as her closest friend for she admires and is protective of her.

**3. Silica Yuroku**

**Age**: 14

**Gender**: Female

**Spirit**: Chimerin, spirit of a young girl

**Medium**: a pinwheel with blades made of metal

**Spirit Control**: Her pinwheels turn into a gigantic pair with chains tied on each for throwing them back and forth. There are sword blades hidden beneath the round center of the wheels which she uses to cut through whatever kind of objects because it can rotate rapidly like a saw.

**Outfit**: A short white dress (like Anna's) with short sleeves and slits at each side of the dress, paired with black shorts and black flat sandals. Also wears strap pockets on her thighs equipped with metal needles for temporary uses. Wears black fitting gloves in battles.

**Physical Appearance**: Long dark blue hair always tied in twintail, black eyes, and fair skin. She stood up a few centimeters higher than Eri.

**Personality**: Often hot-tempered, crude and hard to control and bosses people around. Hates people who insults her personally and gives them back breaking torture. Sensitive when it comes to romance, having nosebleed at a glimpse of sight at it and stalks people. Sometimes beat Acrein for doing things she dislikes but truthfully cares and love him deeply.

**4. Acrein Yuroku**

**Age**: 15

**Gender**: Male

**Spirit**: Hinjiko, a spirit of a young teenager boy (Chimerin's brother)

**Medium**: a cross necklace he always hang around his neck called Light's Replica

**Spirit Control**: His necklace turns into a lance with a sphere just below the lance's blade. His lance emits sparks which gives him boost in power and speed while charging at an opponent. The sphere also bears a heavy weight, causing destructive damage when he smashes it to his target.

**Outfit**: A blue hoodie that he keeps unbutton and a black T-shirt underneath. He wears a black knee-length pants and black sandals. In battles, he wears black gloves with blue edges.

**Physical appearance**: Has a bit messy and spiked up dark blue hair, fair skin and almost has the same height as Trey.

**Personality**: Carefree, noisy and smart. He's also friendly and easy to get along with. He likes drinking and has a habit of greeting people with drop kicks. He's expert at handling any kinds of weapons. He has extremely sharp senses. Cautious and doesn't let his guard down in every fights and he usually thinks first before he acts, but can become reckless when it comes to his sister's safety.

**Antagonists**

Elliah

Seven Pillars

Alice Vandheart

Rose Chenrey

Luke Seiltrith

Maria the Black Itako

Sachi

(I'm still thinking for a name…)

(the seventh… secret!)

Others:

Shiragure Hisui

Shiro

_**Note: It's fine if you don't remember all of the OCs, but if you want to stick to this story, you must at least remember the first 4 characters I wrote above. (BTW, I'm not underestimating your memory. I just know that some people don't like too many OCs. Hehe… But since this concept keeps haunting my mind, I just have to type it down and share it to other people so that I would feel lighter.)**_

_**I was thinking… I wonder if I will give Eri another weapon as her second medium, kinda like Yoh's small red sword which he uses to create a Spirit of Sword. Please tell me what you think!**_

_**Hope you like it!**_


	12. C10 Not With Her!

**Chapter 10: Not With Her!**

**A/N: Hi again! I was able to update this one today so hope you enjoy reading! **

**To Guest(?): God, your review made me sooo happy! It really made me pump up! So now, I tried my best to update this one today for my dear reader! And about Eri's second medium, I think I will give her one. Thanks a lot! XD**

**Now here we go! **

***XX***

"Damn that witch…. just who on earth she thinks she is to give out orders randomly? How I wanted to beat the hell out of her…" Ren growled while walking down the street while clenching his fist. Apparently, earlier, while he was enjoying some fresh air outside of Yoh's house, Anna came and broke his peaceful moment with an order to get something from her. Of course he immediately refused, only to receive her Legendary Left the moment he did so. So here he is.

"Wait up, Master!" his spirit Bason called out to him while flying on midair in his small form.

"She should be thankful that she's Yoh's fiancé or else… I would've scratched her on the face by now…" he continued to mumble, cursing.

"Hey, all of your complaints are just a pain to my ears even if you're not doing anything, all right? You even left me all the packages for her!" Acrein grunted while carrying three large boxes stacked one after another and it seems that he's having a hard time, since the boxes look heavy.

"I'm the one who got them out from that stinky dark room while you were just slacking off, now don't complain if you're carrying those junks now!" Ren yelled back in annoyance as he walked faster.

"Hey, slow down, will you!?" Acrein called out as he tried to catch up but he's too fast.

"Shut up and you should be the one to walk fast!"

"Who are you to talk like that, huh!? Tch, Yoh was right. He's so annoying, short-tempered, grumpy, and most of all, his weird hairstyle…" Acrein lowered his voice at the last two phrases but Ren heard this, thus, his spiky hair flickered and in a flash…

#&0*$%!)R* )^%$!

Acrein lied down on the ground all beat up with the heavy boxes on top of him while Ren went ahead and left him behind. "You… sharkhead… I'll kill you…" he mumbled while kissing the ground then his soul drifted just above him. Then an astral body of a teenager boy appeared before him.

"Jeez, you're always hopeless," Hinjiko said to him with an apologetic smile.

"Damn it… even that freak is also a pain in the ass…. how come I'm surrounded by idiots?" Ren groaned to himself while clenching his fist. When he arrived at a junction, a running person just bumped into him, causing him to fell to the ground. The person stopped running and glanced at him. He gave the person a dagger-stare. "Where the hell do you think you're watching!?"

"It's you who should be looking on your way, retarded klutz!" the person yelled in a girl's voice. Then she passed him and hurried running towards the left side of the junction. He became dumbstruck for a minute.

….

"What the hell… She bumped into me then called me a retarded klutz? Bitch…" Ren murmured to himself in irritation then followed the running girl. "I won't let anyone get away who just called me that when she's at fault!"

He saw the girl turned around the corner that leads to an abandoned alley in a rush. He stopped and hid first to figure out what she's doing. He leaned on the concrete wall and listened to what's going on.

"Damn you, bitch… You won't get away with this!" a manly voice said, which obviously sound like a thug.

"Who are you calling a bitch, you scumbag? Now give me back that!" the girl toughly said in a cold tone.

A smile appeared on Ren's lips and scoffed. "So she's been stolen? How brave. The stolen chased the stealer instead, but still, she's a girl. What can she do about it?"

"Oh, you're talking about this piece of junk? Heh, I only happened to pick this up earlier. Jeez, what's so precious about this trash?" the thug said and clenched the small object he's holding. The girl's eyes widened in furious and clenched her fists so tight.

"J-Junk…? You called those things…. junk?" she hissed.

"Oh? So these things are precious to you? Man, so you're just a sissy little chick at all. Hm, guys!" the man called out with a grin then five people came out from the fence and jumped down right before the man. All of them are holding poles or whatever kinds of weapons with evil grins on their faces.

Ren became a bit anxious for the girl and thought deeply. "Tch, that girl is really putting herself into trouble. Should I help her out? But wait, something's strange…" He carefully slid his back sideward to have a look but stopped when he heard the girl spoke.

"Now you're pissing me off…. you damn scum…" she growled but the men slowly walked towards her.

"T-That voice… it's familiar…" Ren said as he tried to recall where he heard it.

Then the six men charged at her with their weapons and exclaimed, "Just go to hell, little girl!" However, she didn't react and stayed on her spot.

"That idiot!" Ren exclaimed alarmed then he was about to turn when the girl yelled loudly.

"DON'T SCREW WITH ME, YOU SCUMBAGS!"

He flinched then much to his surprise, a red beam of laser suddenly flashed from the corner and went pass through in front of him. He fell down on his behind in shock and the light instantly vanished. He sweated nervously while he remained stiff on his spot. "Wh-What the heck was that? It almost caught me up!"

Few seconds has passed when he recovered from shock and got up to take a look at what happened. Another strange sight greeted him: six men lying on the ground with their bodies burnt and a black-haired girl standing unharmed. Worst of all, the whole alley was pulverized. He sweat dropped nervously.

The girl walked towards the man who's in the middle of the group of thugs and stepped on his wrist hard and his palm opened, revealing two crystal round bells on it. She took the bells and clutched it, then she turned around with closed eyes and sighed.

"You…" Ren spoke up, getting the girl's attention. She opened her eyes and saw him, staring at her with surprised eyes. She became a bit surprised when he saw his face.

"You're… the guy who was with Yoh, right?" she asked.

"Was… with Yoh? Hey, look here, you didn't even remember the person whom you bumped to earlier? What kind of memory do you have?" he said, a bit irritated.

"So? What do you want?"

"What do you think you're doing, chasing those thugs over… uh, what was that again?"

She stared at him for a while then looked away to her side. "None of your concern. And I asked you, what do you want?"

Ren's eyebrows furrowed and twitched in irritation. "You don't even know how to apologize to someone whom you just called retarded klutz even if it was your fault? Learn some personal manners, you charcoaled face!" he said angrily while pointing at her.

"Oh, you only came after me for that? How petty," she replied and crossed her arms and closed her eyes, ignoring his complaint.

"What did you say?"

She opened her eyes and returned his gaze at him. "How petty… Ren Tao," she uttered, making him confused.

"How do you know my name?"

"Your face says it all. Hot-tempered personality, aggressive, crude… stupid? Not only that, it suits your character well," she said bluntly.

A nerve snapped on the boy's temple as he planned to charge at her and pummel her down but tried to hold himself back from hurting a girl. "Don't go rubbing someone else with that impudent mouth of yours, you block head!"

"Hmp," was her only reply and turned back then put the bells on her hair. He stared at her blankly.

He didn't say anything and just looked at the whole place. He became a bit self-conscious with this girl after seeing her beating those guys from earlier and the messing up of the entire alley. _It's just like Yoh said. She's volatile. What's worse is that she destroyed the whole place without any second thoughts…._

She tied the knot on her hair tight to ensure that it won't come off again. After doing so, she turned back and started to walk away when they heard a loud bang on a door on the building's side which surprised them.

"What's that?" she asked as she went in front of the door.

"Hey, don't just go there!" he warned as he followed her.

The door banged again a few times. She didn't listen and was about to hold the knob when it opened by itself, surprising them. The inside was very dark and there was nothing to be seen. Then they felt someone pushed them from behind to the darkness and they fell to the cold floor.

"Hah! Enjoy your night there, you damn brats!" the thug yelled and laughed diabolically as he slammed the door shut. Ren instantly got up and headed for the door.

"Hey, open this up, you morons!" he yelled as he kicked the door angrily. But there was no response outside. He clenched his fist in anger. "Damn it. What's going on, for Pete's sake?"

"Master, what happened?" Bason asked as he appeared on his behind.

"Tch, those idiots locked us up here like we're some kind of kids…" he replied as he clenched his fist then he just sighed but still a bit angry. "If it weren't for that charcoal, this wouldn't have happened. Hey, are you even listening!?" he said out loud then looked around. It was so dark that he couldn't see a thing, even the black-haired girl. Then he heard a crashing sound ahead. "Now what?"

"Why not check it out?" the spirit suggested.

He started to walk straight carefully since there's no light while his spirit followed. Not long, the temperature of the place became cold but it didn't bother him. He continued walking until he heard running footsteps and something bumped into him suddenly, making him fell to the floor on his behind again because of the strong impact, groaning in slight pain. "What was that?"

"Wh-What was that?" It was the girl's voice that spoke softly. He opened his eyes and his eyes widen in surprise when he saw her right in front of him. Then she raised her head and their eyes met directly. He froze. And one more thing he didn't realize is that… he was now leaning on his arms, Eri's hands on his, and her face is only three inches away from his.

"What the—" he blurted out then finally, he finally realized his situation right now. Blood immediately rushed to his head as he froze like a statue. _'Wh-wh-why is she so damn close!? Wh-What should I do!?' _he inwardly exclaimed in embarrassment.

"What… are… you doing…?" Eri hissed, her dark red eyes fixated on his golden ones. "Let go of my hand, pervert."

"Wha—" before he could say anything, he received a powerful slap on the face, causing his head to hit the floor hard. That was his second slap of the day. Eri immediately stood up and grabbed her sword while glaring at him.

Annoyed, Ren instantly raised his head and turned to her while cupping his red cheek. "What the hell was that for!? You were the one who put your hands on me!" He screamed. Eri was caught off guard and flinched, not noticing that she was blushing slightly too. But she immediately shook her head and glared at him back.

"Shut up or I'll be the one to seal that impudent mouth of yours, shark head."

"Don't mimic those idiots' call signs for me, charcoal!" He clenched his teeth while staring at her with an irritated expression. _Curse this day. What kind of luck is following me anyway? First, I got ordered by that Ice Queen like some kind of dog, next, that freak pissing me off and now, I've got to be stuck inside a dark space with this girl! _However, he just let out a sigh and trashed that thought then stood up. "Tch, whatever. I think it would be better if we can find an exit to this place," he stated.

Eri closed her eyes and looked away after standing up. "You don't have to tell me what to do," she said in an irritated voice. She turned her back against him and walked straight.

"Where are you going?"

"Finding the exit, like you said."

"You really have no sense of direction, have you? It's this way." He pointed at the direction where he came from.

"How do you know that?"

"I just came here from there."

"Psh, whatever. I'm sure that's just—" She was cut off when another crashing sound resounded from nowhere. She looked at him who was also looking at her, then both realized danger's closing in on them.

Suddenly, many balls of fire appeared from the distance. Then they heard cracking footsteps closing in as the balls of fire gradually became bigger like it's moving to them.

"Now what? Things are always happening randomly this day," Ren said in an irritated tone.

"Stop spurting out complaints, alright? Let's run for it." They both ran away from the spot and immediately looked for the exit.

***XX***

**A/N: I think it would be fine to let you guys know that I will pair Eri with Ren… *closes one of my eyes and stuck out my tongue* Tehee. More pairings will come soon. 3**

**Please review! ^^**


	13. C11 The House of Skeletons

**Chapter 11: The House of Skeletons**

The spiky dark-blue-haired boy kept on walking while carrying heavy packages with an annoyed look on his face. Right behind him is a black-haired boy wearing blue sweaters and long black pants, walking with his hands behind his head. "That Ren… where did he go this time? Don't tell me he already went ahead?" he asked himself.

"Tough luck for you, huh? I even wonder how that Yoh made friends with him," Hinjiko said with a grin.

His eyebrows twitched in irritation then turned around and looked at his spirit. "Why aren't you helping me out here!? You're my partner, aren't you?" he shouted.

The boy just shrugged his shoulders and put on a fake frown. "How can I carry those things when I'm an astral spirit? Where's your head, man?"

He closed his eyes and went back to walking. "Well, whatever. When we'll get back, I'll surely bat him like a baseball. He still doesn't know who I am." Then a grin carved on his face.

"That's it, Acrein! Show him what you're really capable of!" his spirit cheered for him enthusiastically.

Acrein stopped walking when he reached a junction where the left side leads to an abandoned alley. He stared at the dark path for a while then Hinjiko stopped too when he blocked the way.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a bored tone.

"I feel like he's been here," he said then his expression turned serious. He started walking and turned left while his partner remained standing.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to fetch him, of course. I can feel his presence up ahead."

Hinjiko put his hands down and sighed heavily. "Fine." He followed him without any complaints. The two walked for a while then they reached a corner which they took but a strange sight greeted them. The alley has completely turned into a mess.

"Whoa, what the heck happened here?" the astral spirit said, quite amazed.

"Hold on… there's only one person who can do things like this…" Acrein said then thought deeply. Then he looked around and saw a weird door on the building's side and the presence from earlier became stronger. He walked towards it and stood in front of it. "Is Ren here? What is he doing in a dark place like this? What—!" He exclaimed all of a sudden when he felt another shaman's presence lingering near Ren's. Plus, there's more of them.

"Hey, stop spacing out, will you?" Hinjiko said as he went to him.

Acrein put the boxes down and presses his fist to his palm. "Let's bust this thing out, Hinjiko," he stated seriously.

"Yes! Now I can hit things to erase my boredom!" the boy exclaimed excitedly and changed into small form.

***XX***

*bam! bam!*

Ren swiftly stopped running when he heard a loud bang on a door not far away from him. But due to his sudden stop, Eri bumped on his back and fell on the floor while cupping her forehead. He turned back and glanced at her while she glared at him too.

"Don't just stop running all of a sudden, retard!" she screamed.

"I told you don't call me retard, ash face. I think we're nearly there." He said and knelt in front of her while looking around. The burning objects have disappeared in the darkness. Then the door banged again and they realized it was only a few meters away from them. After a few more attacks on the door from outside, it finally broke down and fell to the floor with a loud sound. A spiky dark-blue haired stood in front of them with a grinning face, his fist clumped in metal while emitting a white light.

"So you really are here," Acrein said as he became a bit irritated.

"You're late, metal freak!" Ren yelled at him irritatingly which made a nerve snapped on the boy's temple.

"Late!? So that's your problem? Dude, you left me behind with those damn boxes and ran away just to—" he trailed off when he doesn't have anything to say. "Uh, anyway! What are you doing in this dark building alone!?" he shouted, getting irritated with the situation.

The black-haired girl popped her head from Ren's back and glanced at the blue boy blankly. "Is that a friend of yours?" she asked without showing any reaction. Acrein freaked out when he saw her and his face turned dark, his skin whitened out. He stiffened at the sight of the girl.

Ren noticed this and eyed him annoyingly. "What's with that creepy look on your face?" he asked.

Acrein snapped back into reality and closed his eyes as he let out a small mischievous smile. "Now I get it. My intuition about you was right…"

"Huh?"

"You dare left your friend lying on the ground just to meet up with this cute, outstandingly demon woman and take her to this abandoned building…. JUST TO CREATE SOME MIRACLE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!" he yelled at the specific last phrases, making them flinch.

A long moment of awkward silence…

Ren's fist is already shaking in anger while Eri lowered her head to let her bangs fall down to cover her eyes. How could this dense idiot imagine such things far from reality? Then they heard Acrein spoke again.

"But still, I'm glad for you, Ren. So for now…" he paused and knelt down on the ground then grabbed a bouquet of flowers from nowhere then continued with teary eyes, "CONGRATULATIONS FOR HAVING A GIRL!"

For a split second, Acrein is slammed on the wall hard, making a huge crack on the wall when Ren and Eri both kicked him on the face. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING, YOU FANTASIZING LECHER!?" the two yelled in unison. Then Ren looked at Eri with a light red face and exclaimed, "You really think that THIS girl… would be my g-g-girl…. GIRLFRIEND!?"

"Who would even like a stupid-looking retarded guy like this one her!?" the girl yelled as he pointed at him.

"So you two weren't… making love?" Acrein mumbled teasingly as his face slid down from the wall. The angry Chinese lad was about to give him a taste of his fist when Eri mercilessly beat him like she's giving him torture. After the beating process, the poor blue boy lied down on the ground with his nose comically dripping with blood.

"If you don't keep your mouth silent, I won't have any second thoughts to behead you, you perverted criminal," she hissed and gave him a murderous look.

"A-All right, I'll stop…." he said as he slowly picked himself up from the floor while covering his bleeding nose, still, the blood flowed through from the gap of his fingers. Then he struggled to turn his head around to meet the glare of the purple-haired boy. "B-By the way, what on Earth are you doing here?" he asked as he wiped the blood off his nose.

Upon hearing this, Ren let his anger down and sighed. "It's a long story. We were locked up in here by some thugs…" he paused and eyed at Eri with vexed eyes. "…if it weren't for that charcoal."

"Shut up, spiky."

Then from the depths of darkness in front of them, many glowing lights suddenly appeared, alarming them. Sounds of crackling footsteps are also heard when the lights became closer. They squinted their eyes to have a clearer look then realization hit them when the moonlight from outside shone on the walking figures.

A bunch of skeletons with flaming heads, each holding murdering weapons like a butcher's knife and some with machetes.

"What!? Skeletons!?" Acrein exclaimed as he completely got up.

"So this place is really haunted by ghosts and spirits…?" Ren said while looking at the skeletons blankly.

"Hey, those are real things, all right? They are not ghosts," Eri stated, correcting him.

They realized that they are now surrounded by the bony figures, blocking every way of exit. However, it didn't seem to affect them, since they're all confident because they still have the power to beat every single one of them.

"Well, maybe this is enough for a little warm-up," Ren said smirking as he took out his thunder sword, but was stopped by Acrein. Annoyed, he retorted, "What? Don't get in my way, steel ware!"

"Come on, stop with the weird nicknames, all right? You don't know me yet. Let me take this on," he said grinning at him like he has the upper hand.

"Huh? It's you who should stay and sit on the corner. And heck, you're the one who still don't know who I am."

This time, a nerve snapped on Acrein's temple and slammed his forehead into Ren's while glaring at him. Ren did the same thing. "Shut up and just let me stand out for once, shark head. You don't even know who you're dealing with," he growled like a tiger.

"That's my line, stupid freak," Ren hissed back and the two sent sparks flying to each other eyes. Eri just ignored them and sighed, "Such idiots."

All of a sudden, a skeleton charged at the two males fighting and aimed its weapon at them. The two immediately realized this and they moved away from each other. As the skeleton missed and passed through in front of each other, they both raised their legs and kicked it right at the ribs while screaming, "DON'T GET IN THE WAY!" and sending it flying to the ceiling.

The other ones also charged at them, pointing their sharp tools at them. Ren immediately held his palm out to the air while saying, "Oversoul! Bason in Hou Rai Ken!" He slammed the red spirit in his spirit ball mode into the sword and it turned into a huge weapon like his Guan Dao, only bigger and has a gold color. He swiftly jumped in the air and sent the opponents raining golden lasers, instantly destroying them.

"Hah! Not bad, Ren Tao! Now it's my turn!" Acrein exclaimed enthusiastically and grabbed his shiny cross necklace on his neck then extended out his hand and opened his palm. "Oversoul! HInjiko… in Light's Replica!" he chanted out and in a glimpse of a blinding light, his necklace turned into a double-edged lance with a round steel wheel with a marking on it just below the blade. He held the lance with his hands and pointed it straight to a group of skeletons in front of him. His lance suddenly emitted sparks around it then at a lightning speed, he charged towards the opponents, leaving an electric beam on his trail. All his enemies are also eliminated at once.

He looked at Ren with a smirk then said, "See that, huh, pointy?" A proud grin carved on his face but Ren just scoffed and looked away with a smirk too.

"I admit you're not that bad but…" Ren paused then sliced the skeletons in half who are about to attack him before continuing, "…you're not as good as I am!" He raised his weapon in the air and it shone in golden light, then he lashed out a strong golden shockwave towards the enemies.

"We'll see about that!" he exclaimed then jumped at the air and swung his sparking lance down towards another group of skeletons, causing an explosion of blue electric sparks inside the building. Dusts flew around the whole area then it eventually became clear again.

However, the black-haired girl with dark-red eyes remained standing on her spot while watching the two shamans before her competing with each other. She tightened the grip of her sword and muttered, "Those two are not bad, but they lack something…" _But… what's this weird presence lingering somewhere in this building? I don't think these fragile figures are just simple skeletons. It's like… someone's controlling it._

After a few minutes of fighting, the skeletons stopped attacking them and stayed on their place, making the three also stop in confusion.

"What's going on with these things? They've stopped attacking?" Ren asked himself while still holding his weapon.

"Huh? Don't tell me they're now scared?" Acrein said in a bored tone as he held the lance straight and poked the ground with the end of it.

The skeletons suddenly dropped their weapons on the floor with a loud sound then their whole figures started to glow in a dark purple light. The two took a step back as they held their guard up, realizing that these things got another trick on their sleeve. Later, the parts of their figures broke up and flew to the air and gathered around until something was formed. The shamans' eyes widen in surprise to see a gigantic skeleton in front of them.

"Wh-What on Earth is that!?" Acrein exclaimed in disbelief while gazing at the giant.

"The skeletons gathered and turned into a giant one? That's the same as Faust's technique!" Ren said, not taking off his eyes at the monster.

"I don't predict this…" Eri whispered to herself while staring at the giant with a deadly serious look. But in fact, she's less surprised than the other two.

The skeleton's empty shell of eyes glowed in a purple light then it started to move. In a fast speed, it raised its hand in the air then swung it down, whacking the two shamans away from each other. Eri didn't even have the time to react. Ren hit his back against the wall and dropped his weapon down while Acrein was thrown to the other side. She stepped back when the monster is now looking at her.

"D-Damn it. This is bad," Ren cursed as he got up and grabbed his weapon.

"What speed… My eyes didn't catch up when it whacked me…." Acrein mumbled to himself.

The skeleton roared out loud, its roar resounded throughout the entire building, making the three cover their ears. Again, it raised its right arm but this time, it looks like it's going to pierce Eri with its bony claws. Before it could move an inch towards her, Ren and Acrein immediately got on their feet and charged towards it with their weapons shining. But it changed its' hand's position then whacked Acrein away again then pummeled Ren towards the floor. Fortunately, he blocked it with his weapon and he didn't get squashed flat.

"Damn it, just hold up, you damn bunch of bones!" Ren grumbled as he tried to push the skeleton's fist with all his might but it was just too strong for him to hold up. Then in a flash, he saw a thin red light passed through the bony arm then in two seconds, it was cut off from the main part and fell to the floor with a loud impact. His eyes widen in surprise when he saw Eri standing right in front of him with her back faced on him. Her long silky black hair flew away with the wind caused by the impact earlier. For a moment, he found himself dumbfounded.

"You okay?" she said casually, not looking back.

It took a while for him to snap out then he replied coldly, "Tch, who do you think I am? I'm not that weak to get hurt by a simple whack."

"It's fine to lower your pride." She held her sword tight and slowly pulled it out from its sheath. Then the rose-haired woman in kimono appeared before her. She raised her palm and said, "Oversoul, Sakurazen… in Hell Angel's Fang." After that, the blade of her sword became crimson red in color and a silver wing-like thing grew from one side of its hilt. Ren became a bit amazed at the shape of her Oversoul.

"I'll handle that thing while you just sit there quietly," she stated calmly. This annoyed him.

"You'll handle it? Stop being too full of yourself! Now you're the one being proud here!" he exclaimed but was ignored. Eri already started to walk to the monster.

Upon seeing her, the monster roared again loudly in rage then it opened its jaw wide. A dark purple orb formed in its mouth and gradually became bigger every second. The building also began to shake slightly. The two boys panicked when they saw this but Eri just remained silent and calm.

"Eri! Get out of there, right now!" Acrein yelled but she seemed like she didn't hear it.

"You're really putting yourself into a great trouble, you damn brat!" Ren yelled in annoyance but with a mixed tone of anxiousness too.

"Shut up and just watch, you insects," Eri said with no reaction, making them stop in shock.

The dark orb in the monster's mouth became bigger and bigger until it became very big enough to obliterate probably a large area. Eri started to make her move and waved the sword to her back and uttered with a serious look in her eyes, "Third dance: Crimson Lunar Fang…" With that said, time seemed to stop for a few seconds then she turned her back to the monster and everything went back to its original state. With the pierce of her sword on the floor, a thin red light passed through the monster's body, cutting it neatly in half. A long slash mark was suddenly drawn all across the room on the floor behind where it was standing. The skeletons slowly collapsed on the floor.

Meanwhile, Ren's eyes are all wide, filled with disbelief and shock at the scene. Acrein also had his eyes wide and his mouth gaped wide as sweats streamed down on his face. "Wh-What… happened?" he stuttered, almost speechless because of shock.

_She defeated it… with a single attack? I didn't even see what actually happened! Nor have I seen her move from her place and slash it in half. Or maybe… her speed is something… unmatched? _Many thoughts and questions came into Ren's head that he wasn't sure what he would say.

The girl walked at a slow pace towards Ren with a blank expression on her face. Ren backed off a bit when she stood right next to him. He didn't know why he is feeling… nervous? They stared at each other for a long time, creating a silent atmosphere between them.

"Can you stand?" was the first thing Eri said to break the silence then she reached out her hand for him. Ren slowly recovered from shock then he snapped when she offered him a hand.

He only sat up straight and closed his eyes, his eyebrows furrowing. "Of course I can, charcoal," he replied in his usual tone.

"Then why are you sitting up?" she asked as she closed her eyes.

"Why, got a problem with that!?" he retorted. Then from the far right, screamed the dark blue-haired boy who already recovered from shock too.

"Awesooooome! That was so great, Eri! How did you do that? That slicing technique? Man, that was incredible!" Acrein exclaimed with an extremely impressed face. He couldn't say anything besides praising her move. While on the left side, Ren's eyes narrowed and his brows twitched in annoyance. Eri didn't simply react.

"Excuse me, but don't just shout like that! And quit complimenting her!" he yelled at the metal-user.

"What? She _is_ awesome! And strong too! Don't just break my mood just because you're jealous, Chinese boy!"

"Huh? Who said I was jealous, you tin ware!?"

"Stop it you two. I don't need your quarrels over someone who's stronger," Eri butted in as she cancelled her Oversoul and put her sword back to its sheath. The two stopped and stared at her. "Shall we go? Since we're done with the work anyway." She immediately walked out of the building, leaving the two behind.

"W-Wait up, Eri! Lemme say this, but I'm your fan from now on, okay?" Acrein said excitedly as he ran to catch up with her. Ren snapped and stood up then went after them.

She glanced at the dark blue-haired boy aloofly then sighed, "Whatever. But don't go all clingy on me in a pervy manner or I'll kill you."

"Hey, how could you just leave so naturally? And heck, wait for me!" Ren yelled at the two.

"Bleh! I won't part up with you anymore 'cause you're not as awesome as her!" Acrein said as she stuck his tongue out, annoying the Tao boy. Then he added, "Oh, by the way Ren, don't forget to bring the packages!"

"WHAT!?" he exclaimed out loud then turned around and saw the packages outside the building, just beside the door. A nerve snapped on his head in anger and yelled, "Why the hell are you making me carry these junks!?"

"Think of it as a punishment! If you don't carry it, Anna will send you flying! Haha!"

Unexpectedly, Eri hit his side with the end of her sheathed sword and said, "Shut up. You're so annoying." Acrein cupped his aching side while walking.

"Ow…"

"I said, WAIT UP!"

****XX****

On top of a building, a man is secretly watching the three shamans walking together while grumbling at each other. He had a black hair which was a bit messy which covered the right of his face, and was wearing a long black coat which collar's also covered his mouth. Only his left eye was only uncovered. A smirk appeared on his face as he polished his wooden flute with a skull mark on its end with his fingers.

"Now… that was one interesting show…" he mumbled to himself.


	14. C12 Another Friends' Night

**Chapter 12: Another Friends' Night**

**A/N: I don't really have anything to say except… here's chapter 12! Hope you enjoy reading and don't forget to drop a review! ^^**

*****XX*****

"Now I'm starting to get worried…" a dark blue-haired girl in twintail mumbled to herself with an uneasy look on her face, her fingers tapping her elbow impatiently. She glanced at the wall clock then screamed, "ARGH! It's already 7:00 and he's still not back!? Where on Earth did he go!?"

"Calm down, Silica. Probably it's just taking them a while," the brunette with headphones said with his usual smile on to calm her down but she sent him a glare instead.

"What _is _taking him a while? Where is he, Yoh? You know right?" she asked impatiently.

"Eh? Er, um… uh, what should I…" he stuttered then wondered if it's all right if he should tell her that his cold fiancé had send them to get something for her but knowing this hot-headed, impatient girl, she would probably pummel him when she finds out that her brother has been working as a delivery boy for _her_.

"What?" she asked as her eyes scowled.

"Uh um… a-actually, he's—"

"TALK AND DON'T STUTTER!" yelled the girl who's about to die of impatience, which made him flinch.

"All right! He just went to get something for her!" the Ainu kid answered instead in an irritated tone. The girl eyed him irritatingly.

"Who's _her_? And what's he getting?"

"Uh, just stay calm, okay? Here, have some tea," a certain pink-haired girl named Tamara came to her with a timid smile and gave her a cup of tea. Silica just sighed and drank it immediately. After drinking it, she closed her eyes and became a bit calm.

"You are already stressing yourself out even if it's your first time in a long time going here. Don't worry, your brother can take care of himself, right?" Yoh said to reassure her.

"I just have a hard time today, all right? Never mind that. I'm actually surprised that for a long time, you've made some new friends. So you met them at the Shaman Fight?" Silica half-opened one of her eye and looked at Trey blankly. He grinned at her.

"Actually, I'm Yoh's first friend. And he's the first shaman that I've fought with at the tournament," he said.

.

"Yeah… but too bad you lose," Silica said nonchalantly as she looked at her side.

"L-Lose!? H-How did you k-know that?" he asked surprised.

'That's because she's expert at stalking or watching people secretly, which makes her know almost everything that has happened in this town. Actually, this girl is a masochist," Yoh said with a smile, unnerving Silica.

"Who's this masochist you're calling? Want me to snap your neck?" she asked in a threatening tone. Yoh only sweat-dropped. She just looked away and crossed her arms "Tch, I don't know why I'm surrounded by idiots this time."

"Who are you calling an idiot, you wench?" yelled Trey as he slammed his hands on the table angrily.

"Wench?" Silica uttered as she gave him a scary glare, scary enough to make him sit down and gulped nervously.

_W-What the heck? I don't know why but… she smells dangerous. I just felt a half-Anna and half-Pilica in this girl just a sec ago! _Trey remarked in his thought.

"N-Now, now, Silica, don't get upset over something like that," Yoh said, trying to calm her down.

Suddenly, they heard a door slammed open, surprising them. Trey and Morty rushed outside of the living room to see a spiky dark blue-haired boy, a purple-haired boy, and a black-haired girl. They were a lot surprised to see the girl actually since they already know it's not her style to hang out in someone's house.

"We're back!" Acrein greeted with a grinning face.

"Oh, welcome back," the shorty greeted too with a smiling face.

"ANNA! Where are you!? Your pile of junks is already here!" Ren immediately shouted in an obviously irritated tone. Yoh and Tamara just giggled at him.

Hearing him, the blonde girl showed up from the kitchen and crossed her arms as she stood up straight on the end of the hallway. "You took long enough. I got tired of waiting," Anna said coldly.

"So you're only tired of waiting while we're tired of walking all the way from here to there!" He dropped the boxes on the floor and glared at her.

"Put that in my room. Now. And don't just go calling my things 'junk', get that?" she said with a warning tone before going back to the kitchen. He twitched an eyebrow but followed her anyway.

"Man! I'm so tired after all those things!" Acrein sighed as he raised his arms in the air like he just woke up in the morning. Morty noticed something strange with them.

"Uh, excuse me, but what happened to you guys? You look a bit… dirty."

"Huh? Oh, we were just having a bit of fun. Right, Eri?" He looked at her but she didn't respond.

"Oh, Eri's also there?" Trey asked.

"Yeah," she replied meekly.

"Uh, hate to break it to you guys, but Acrein, you've got someone waiting for you," Yoh said with a sheepish smile while scratching his head.

"Huh? Who?" Acrein said as he went to the living room with the others, then a steel tray went flying to him the moment he entered and hit his face with a loud bang. He fell to the floor with a drop of blood from his nose. The others jaw-dropped.

"What's taking you so long, huh!?" Silica screamed as she stomped her feet on the table.

Acrein immediately sat up while cupping his nose and looked at the girl with an annoyed expression. "Is hitting me a tray your way of greeting your brother who just got recovered from injuries!?"

"Injuries?" Her eyes narrowed. He backed off. She closed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "What happened?" she asked as she tried to calm herself down.

"O-Oh, I…—" he thought of an excuse, then something crossed his mind. "I just fell down the stairs while getting something," he said as he flopped on Indian style.

"Your clothes and your back are so dirty," the girl said, doubting.

"It was hardly a fall."

"And what's with your very red nose?"

"I instantly fell onto this hot chick behind me— WHAT!?" he freaked out when he realized what he just said. He looked at his friends. Two boys with a plain blank stare, one with a confused stare, and… two girls with murderous glares. He sweat-dropped nervously.

"Hot chick?" Eri repeated his words in a deep tone, accompanied with a deadly aura behind her.

"Fell onto?" Silica hissed as her body is already shaking in anger.

"Ah! No, no, no, no, it's not like that! Something happened while we're on the way back here—"

"_Something_ happened?"

"Eh… well… ALL RIGHT! Just let me explain first, okay!?" he yelled as he's starting to get irritated with the conversation.

"Oh, I get it. So you've been up all night chasing girls all around the town, huh? I thought you only come to visit Yoh since it's been a long time… You lecher…" she said as she crossed her arms. A very deadly aura surrounded her, causing her hair to fly. Acrein and the others backed off in nervousness, except for Eri of course.

"H-Hold up, Silica! Hear me out, please! Please don't do your Breaking Punishment on— OW, OW, OW!" the boy yelped as her sister pushed him down to the floor and sat on his back, then pulled his arms so hard and bent his back like she's ripping them off. "STOP IT, SILICA! MY SPINE IS BREAKING!"

"Acrein!" Yoh and Trey both called out worriedly.

Silica pulled even harder, causing him to cry even more in pain. "OH GOD! MY BACK WILL SNAP INTO TWO!"

And _CRACK!_

…

The poor boy lied down on the ground with his soul drifting just above him while Silica stood up and crossed her arms, still having the same expression. The others turned white and stiffened, all thinking— _What a bloody backbreaking torture!  
_

"Got something to say?" she asked as she sent them her glares, making them gulp nervously. However, Eri remained calm and walked in front of the others.

"Who is this big-mouthed girl with an irritating hairstyle?" she asked.

"Huh?" Silica asked like a gangster's tone. "Who the hell are you to call me big-mouthed, match head?" she retorted.

"Well, you _are _a big mouth. Even that long, creepy hair of yours makes you look like a horse," Eri replied as she crossed her arms and stood very straight.

"Eh? Well, just by looking at you, I can tell that you're nothing but a left-over of a burnt match," she said with a smirk.

"Pony-girl."

"Pen marker."

"Creepy witch."

"Coal tar."

The two girls kept calling each other nicknames while the boys sweat-dropped while thinking the same thing— _Those two are a lot alike. _Then before they realize it, the girls are already turning the scene serious and took their weapons out.

"You're pissing me off, ink head!" Silica screamed as she swung down a huge steel pinwheel-like thing to the floor, leaving a mark on it.

"EHHHH!?"

"You're starting to get in my nerves, you rotting donkey face!" Eri retorted back while activating her Oversoul. The spectators freaked out even more. Annoyed at the noisy bunch, the angry Itako slid the kitchen's door open, immediately catching their attention.

"Oh man, are we that noisy?" Trey asked, nervously smiling.

"STOP SCREAMING, YOU ALL NO-GOOD PEOPLE!" Anna yelled, silencing them. She sighed then met Eri's blank gaze at her. She returned the same action to her. After a short silence, she asked, "Who is this uninvited guest? This inn is getting more and more uninvited people. "

Yoh walked in front of the others then stopped beside Eri. He said with a sheepish smile, "Um, Anna, this girl is Eri Azuraki, you know, the one I told you about?"

"So she's the one who slept here in the other night without my permission?" she said while eyeing Eri.

"Eh? T-That's because she was injured that night and… couldn't go back home. Plus, you came home late and I didn't have the chance to explain it to you," Yoh explained.

Anna kept staring at Eri from head to toe while Eri also stared at her. They kept staring blankly at each other for a while, creating an awkward silence inside the room. Just then, Yoh and his friends inwardly freaked out as their bodies lose color in fright.

'_Oh, God! How come I introduced her to Anna like this? This is bad now!' _Yoh exclaimed in his thought.

_'Just great. What if these two demons fight inside here? The whole place will be crumbled in pieces!' _Trey, Tamara and Morty thought while gulping nervously while picturing an image of a horned Eri and Anna having an all-out rumble.

Stare….

Stare….

Stare….

Short silence….

Anna clutched Eri's hand gently as she suddenly appeared in front of her in a split of a second. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Eri," she said in a bit of a nice tone.

"You too, Anna Kyouyama," Eri said as she gripped her hand gently and shook it once. The others stumbled down with the sudden change of the atmosphere.

"WHAT THE HECK!? They shake hands!?" Yoh exclaimed shocked.

"They're not fighting!" Morty and Tamara added.

"Well, maybe it's only natural for brutes like them to get along," Trey softly murmured at the word 'brutes'. However, Anna and Eri both heard this very well and shot him a death glare.

"Who are you calling a brute?" Anna asked in an icy tone.

"Want me to offer you a chopping business?" Eri added while releasing a very dark aura.

"KAAAH! Plus, it's ten times worse if the two demons are together!" the Ainu kid shrieked as he felt like their glares are piercing him.

"No, you're missing the count. If you add this one behind me, it will be three— OWWWW! PLEASE STOP IT!" Acrein screamed as Silica performed another torture technique on him; she sat behind his knees and locked his legs then twisted them.

"You're calling your own little sister a demon!? You gar_Bro_ge!" she yelled and gave it more strength.

"So… what now?" Yoh sighed loudly.

"How about me and Eri have a cup of tea? As a symbol of our acquaintanceship," Anna suggested.

"That… would be nice," Eri replied hesitatingly. Anna left them alone and headed to the kitchen. Eri watched the door of the kitchen where Anna just entered a sec ago then turned around and observed the crowd around her: Silica snapping Acrein's arms and legs, Acrein yelping, Trey shedding tears for him, Morty and Tamara laughing at the scene and Yoh just shrugging his shoulders off.

Anna just went out of the kitchen, holding a tray with two cups of tea and went to the living room. The rest stopped what they're doing and followed her including Eri. They shared stories for a long time then Tamara was about to go to the kitchen by Anna's order when she bumped into Ren and fell. Ren scolded her and she whimpered while Yoh came and comforted her, despite Anna's glare of jealousy on his back. Trey and Acrein started a conversation with the two of them while drinking.

Eri saw all of this with her eyes. She can feel comforting warmth around them, a warm feeling that she never felt before in a long time. Nostalgia struck her as she got sucked deeper into their world.

'_Before I realize it, I tagged along with the two idiots and ended up sitting right here. Right now, I'm surrounded by mostly idiots. If Eurin was here, this would get noisier. An event like this is something I don't experience in life every day. I admit… it's fun to have some friends with you, but…'_

While thinking, fragments of her memory flashed in her mind; the night when the moon was full and glowing in red, a small town being burned into ashes, a sword soaked in blood, a cold corpse of a boy, and a mysterious silver-haired girl with a smirk and words that she can't forget.

'_This mustn't keep on…. because a devil like me has no place in this world full of stupid people.'_

***XX***

**Review please!**


	15. C13 A Demon Hidden Inside

**Chapter 13: A Demon Hidden Inside**

*****XX*****

After the small party in the inn, everyone has fallen asleep in their own rooms. It was a peaceful and a starry night but a certain blonde-girl didn't care about her surroundings. She silently walked towards her own room and slid the door open. She went inside and closed the door carefully. She headed to the large box on the corner of the room and knelt before it. She gently opened the box and she stumbled upon a very old book.

She took it carefully from the box, put it on her lap and stared at it blankly. Then she recalled what happened on the day after Yoh trained under her and went to stroll to town.

-flashback-

_"Morty, where's Yoh?" Anna asked as she popped her head out from the living room._

_ "H-He said he just went out for a short walk," the short boy replied._

_ "Is that so?" She paused for a moment then thought deeply. She already knew that his 'short' walk isn't really short. In fact, it would sometimes take him a whole day to return back home from strolling or slacking off around. But this time, she didn't care about that. There's something important she has to do first. "All right, Morty. You watch the house first 'cause I'm going out for a while." She was about to walk away when Morty protested._

_ "What? You're going after him? Y-You can just let me go and…"_

_ "It's an order," she cut him off coldly. He just nodded in response and sat down on the chair of the living room with his shoulders drooped. She walked away and went to her room to grab her jacket then went outside. She stood still for a while to let the wind blew on her face, refreshing her for a second. Then she started heading to her destination: Izumo._

_ -at Izumo-_

_ "Now why did you call me here, Kino-sensei?" Anna asked politely at the old woman smoking in front of her._

_ "I called you here because there's something I need to show you. Come." The old woman led her the way to large empty backyard of the Asakura house. Then they arrive at what it seems like a large storehouse and went inside. For some reason, she didn't know why but there is something which made her crept out. She didn't even notice that Kino was already scattering some things around only to find a strange-looking old book. Anna walked towards her slowly._

_ "What's that?"_

_ "It's an old book that we just found at Hao Asakura's shrine. It's a shock, since we haven't seen this book before at that place and it's very different from the other ones. I don't think it's his."_

_ "What?" She muttered, confused._

_ "Take a look inside." Kino handed her the book gently but the moment Anna touched it, she felt a very strange and dark aura from it crawling to her hands. She immediately dropped it on the floor with a shocked expression, sweat trickling down from her head. Kino just stared at her blankly._

_ "What's with that book? It has some kind of aura on it."_

_ "That's what we felt at first too." Kino picked up the book and opened it herself. She showed it to Anna and again, she became more surprised. On the pages were pictures of different spirits but there is something that caught her attention. The first page shows a picture of a lady dressed in white dress and black armor, gold circlet and a pair of wings. The lady is also holding a sword._

_ "Valkyrie…" Anna murmured as she looked at the picture seriously. Then she looked at Kino. "What's the meaning of this?"_

_ "I'm not really sure but… I think this is bad news. The Valkyrie… must be called from the afterlife."_

_ "That's impossible. Only an itako powerful enough can call that spirit. A spirit like that is even more powerful than a god-class spirit. Isn't that what they call the legendary Lost Spirit?"_

_ "Yes, it is. But what could be the reason why an ancient book likes this doing in our place? Have you ever thought about that?"_

_ Anna stopped. "No…"_

_ "There's another one thing that you need to know. About Hao," Kino added._

_ "What about him? What does a late person got to do with this?"_

_ "He's been brought back to life again."_

_ Those words shocked her. "Brought back alive? But how? I remember that day very well. Yoh actually killed him."_

_ "Yeah, Yoh defeated him and saved the world from being destroyed. But I said that he was revived…. by an unknown shaman."_

_ "Does this mean…. Yoh's going to fight him again? Is he planning to commence his stupid idea again?"_

_ "No."_

_ She looked at the old woman, confusion written over her face. "What?"_

_ "From what we know, he lost all his powers and the Spirit of Fire. Maybe his mind reading power was lost too. And it looks like someone erased them from him."_

_ "This has gotten more confusing. So someone brought him back alive but took his powers away, and the Valkyrie has been stolen. What's this all about?"_

_ Kino remained silent for a while, thinking how she should tell her. Then she looked at her in the eyes, her expression serious and concerned. "Anna…."_

_ "Yes?"_

_ "You must protect Yoh…. and yourself. Stay away from any kinds of danger, no matter what," she said in a warning tone. Anna became more confused._

_ "Yoh always got himself into danger."_

_ "No, that's not what I mean. I just have the feeling that something bad will arise in the future. Something even worse than Hao's previous plan of eliminating all humans. No matter what happens, protect Yoh."_

_ She stood there, quiet like she's processing the words that came out from Kino. A moment later, she nodded and replied, "Yes."_

_ "I'm glad you understand. But for now, don't worry about it too much. I'm telling you this just in case."_

_ "All right."_

_ "Then you can leave now."_

**-end of flashback-**

Anna flipped the book open and there she saw the image of the lady in armor in the first page. She flipped it again to the second one, and she saw a poem and read it out loud.

_Oh, little flower, which petals are in blood_

_The light of the moon shone upon thee_

_A drop of life from your crimson bud,_

_Fell to the ground, and descends the evil god._

_Feared by humanity, thy heart blooms in evil_

_And lit the whole world by the fires of hell_

_Nightmare pours down on the now dark world_

_Only the little flower remains standing in glory…_

Anna closed the book with sadness and fear written all over her face and hugged the book tight. "Yoh… can you really handle what's going to happen in the future?"

***XX***

'Where am I?'— the brunette asked himself mentally as he opened his eyes but saw no one. It was all dark. Everything was black and he felt himself like floating. He lowered his head and realized that he can only see himself. Then he kept turning around to see any signs of other things but all in vain.

"How dare you… How dare you!" a boy's voice suddenly echoed somewhere around him. He flinched as he heard that then he turned around but saw no one. But he recognized that voice.

"Acrein? Is that you?" he asked out loud, even though he knew there was no one around.

"Nice… I believe it's only natural for older ones to protect their younger ones. Well, what are you planning to do with that?" A girl said in a mocking tone. He's also familiar with that voice but it sounds somehow different than what he knew. It made him confused.

"Shut the hell up… I won't forgive you… Those who hurts my little sister… DIES!" Yoh heard the boy yelled.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Yoh blurted out loud but then he heard nothing more. His surrounding became quiet all of a sudden. _'What the heck is going on?' _Just then, another voice interrupted his thoughts._  
_

"Leave…" a stern voice of a girl said behind him. Yoh quickly turned back and no one again but heard someone sobbing. "Wait, is that you, Eri? Eri, where are you? Guys!" Yoh called out to them but all in vain. Then he heard it again.

"I don't know who you are, but please leave me alone…. before I could bring myself to kill you… Just please…"

"Eri… where are you?" Yoh asked himself. He didn't know what's going on anymore but he felt nervous and scared inside, even though he don't know why.

"Yoh…" spoke a velvety voice, coming from behind him again. This time, his shock doubled the moment he realized who's the owner of that voice. He slowly turned around and saw a long-haired brunette, wearing a white cloak and red pants. The boy just stood there, staring at him blankly.

"T-This can't be… Hao?" he stuttered as he backed off, feeling nervous. A second later, a white shadow suddenly loomed over them. Yoh raised his head and saw a giant angel-like thing with a sword and on its shoulder is what it seemed like a girl. Hao followed his sight and the same expression of him appeared on his face too.

"What's this? I don't know what this is anymore," Yoh said to himself then the next thing that happened was what he didn't expect. The angel raised its weapon and swung it down to them then everything went black.

***XX***

Yoh woke up with a loud gasp in his dark room, bullets of sweats trickling on his face, panting heavily for air. He immediately sat up and covered his forehead with his hand. He instantly calmed down a bit after registering all what he saw in his nightmare. He took one last deep breath before removing his hand.

"Master! Are you alright?" Amidamaru materialized beside him with an extremely worried face.

"H-Huh? Y-Yeah… guess I am," he replied. Actually, he wanted to pretend to smile at least but he couldn't. What he just saw was just much of a shock and frightening.

"You were full of uneasiness while you were sleeping and you were tossing back and forth in your bed. What happened?"

"Sheesh, why am I being haunted by weird nightmares lately? It's not so funny at all… It seems so… real," he said to himself then looked at the door. He stood up and headed for it. He decided to go out for a while and take a small fresh air to calm himself more.

"Um… Master? Are you heading out?" the samurai asked curiously as he followed him behind. Yoh opened the door and walked out of his own room then went downstairs, careful not to wake up everyone sleeping. Just then, he replied to the spirit, "Yes."

As he passed by the living room, he was surprised when he felt the wind blew inside. The curtains are swaying gently because of the cold breeze. He looked at the porch outside and saw a silhouette of a girl. _Hm… is Eri stargazing again?— _that's what he thought but when the curtains stopped swaying, he could clearly saw that it was Anna who's sitting on the porch. He froze on his spot, thinking what he should do.

Anna suddenly turned her head to her back and saw him. She stared at him blankly, which made him took a step back in nervousness. He thought that she must be angry that he interrupted her and thought that it would be best if he should leave immediately. But…

"Um…. what are you doing out here late in the night?" he asked casually.

"Just cooling off," she replied blankly.

Yoh was a bit surprised when he saw Anna being quiet like this and not getting mad. A short silence follow then which made him feel a little bit awkward. Wait, now that he thought of it, he and Anna didn't have the time to spend some time alone before… and maybe he could enjoy staying with her for a while right now. Yup, that's what he planned. He forced a smile and approached her carefully. "Can I stay with you for a while, Anna?" he asked gently.

"You can." He sat down beside her and looked up at the sky. A smile crept on his lips as he watched the scene full of pleasure. _'So full of stars… Just like the time when me and Eri were talking about something…' _"B-By the way, what are you doing here? Can't you sleep?" he said, not looking at her.

"Something's just bothering me… a bit." She sighed softly and closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again. Yoh looked at her curiously.

'_Anna's been bothered by something, she says? Now that I think of it, I'm the same. Could she be having some nightmares too? Like those real-like nightmares I've been having lately…'_

"Yoh,," she spoke suddenly, making him flinch.

"Yes?"

"Do you really believe that everything will work out?"

Silence followed. He's still registering what she just said. It surprised him. It's weird for her to ask something like that this time. She sounded like…. she's doubting something that he didn't know. It confused him more. But…. he just ignored all the questions in his head and nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I do."

"I see…" A small smile crept on her lips as she closed her eyes. He was dumbstruck for a minute as he looked at her. He didn't know but he felt a bit… enchanted by her for a moment. He didn't even recognize that he's slightly blushing.

"I always believe in that all the time. No matter what problems arise, it'll all work out in the end," he said.

"Then you're going to lead me an easy life even if you're not the king now. Since you said it."

"What? T-That's… unexpected…." He said surprised, not expecting that at all.

"Let me just say this for once. Just…" she trailed off then looked to her side with a slight blush. "…don't push yourself too far… and don't go too far away from me, get that?"

Blood slowly ran to his head as he replayed her words in his head a few times. After a while, he nodded once and smiled, then slowly nudged towards her and held her hand. Anna looked at him blankly. "Sure, I won't," he replied before returning his attention to the sky. His fiancé leaned on his shoulder then followed his sight.

***XX***

Meanwhile, the samurai spirit in ball mode carefully headed to upstairs with uneasiness written all over his face. He softly said to himself, "Seeing Master Yoh and Miss Anna being alone and having some private talks is a little too weird for me to handle. Better leave them some privacy or maybe I can't hold up anymore…" He sighed as he reached the second floor.

"So even the mighty Amidamaru can't handle such scenes…" spoke a teasing voice behind him. He almost jumped back in fright at the sudden voice. He turned around and just saw the shrine maiden leaning on the wall with her arms crossed. He eyed her suspiciously.

"Um… you might be… Miss Eri's partner, right?" he said as he turned back to his normal form.

"Really… old age really has slow memories, don't they?" the maiden said with sarcasm as she looked at him.

He stood still for a moment as he looked at her carefully from head to toe. Then he felt a light bulb flashed in his mind in recognition. "W-Wait… don't tell me you're…. S-Sac— EEK!" He was cut off when a sword's tip almost pierced his face.

"That's as far as your tongue can go. Maybe you forgot that I still have my vow, you know that?" she warned.

"P-Please forgive me, Lady Sakurazen," he said as he raised his hands. She immediately lowered her sword and put it back to its sheath.

"Isn't it such a coincidence for us to meet here? My, how long has it been? 1... no, it's… been 200 years, hasn't it?" She looked at him with a smile while he just stared at her blankly.

"Y-Yeah, that's right. But… I don't expect you to leave your previous master and be partners with a shaman," he replied.

"Let's just say that I was just following her because the previous master told me so. Young miss has all of my respect."

"Sometimes you're so hard to read…" he softly mumbled as he sighed. "Um, about your master… Miss Eri, I don't really like to say this but, she looks a bit… strange, maybe? And I can also feel a strong aura from her, like Miss Anna."

She stared at him blankly for a while, then looked away as she closed her eyes. "Yeah, she's a bit weird but don't blame her for that. And yeah, she's strong… much more than that Anna or your master perhaps." She smirked as she finished.

"M-More than Miss Anna? Really?" he repeated disbelievingly.

"You don't know anything about Young Miss. Her power is already at a level where no one else can reach. She's improved so much just for 5 years, thanks to my previous master. And yes, the same goes for me too."

"Hate to break it, but I also improved ever since I joined Master Yoh."

She scoffed and smirked. She looked at him like she knows everything. "I heard you're a holy spirit now. Is that really true?"

"You could say so… wait, what?" he said then looked at her confused. Her smile grew wider.

"Don't worry. It's not like I'm gonna ask you to testing fight. Hm, like you could even defeat a higher-up," she said in a bit of a mocking tone then laughed. Amidamaru just sweat-dropped. Then she settled down and added, "My master's a handful, you know. She's hard to read and understand. Until now, I don't even know what she really has in mind, such as her dreams or goal. She's quiet and is a closed person… like a robot." Then a small sad smile appeared on her lips.

"I don't know what to say…" he whispered softly as he looked at his side.

"She may be like that but she carries a tremendous guilt in herself. Well, not like there's a lot I can do about it." She closed her eyes and turned her back against him, acting to leave. But before she walked away, she said, "I almost forgot to say… it's nice to meet you again." Then she disappeared, leaving him alone staring at the place where she was just standing a second ago.

"….."

"My, I'm lost at words. I'm not really sure but… is that how she says 'I miss you' at people?" a teasing voice of a boy suddenly came from the room on his left. The door opened, revealing a black-haired boy and a black-haired girl with mischievous smiles on their faces. It was just Acrein and Silica's spirit partners.

"You were eavesdropping all the time?" he asked emotionlessly.

"Kinda like that," the little girl replied, still has her sweet smile. She had her hair in a hime cut. She is wearing a purple tube-topped dress and a breast plate. There are also chains wrapped on her arms and legs and shackles on her wrists and ankles.

"Even Bason was watching," Hinjiko added as he put his hands behind his head. Then the Chinese warlord popped out behind them.

"I'm sorry. We're just curious, you know. Heh," he said, also smiling.

"Well, we're actually not in the kind of relationship you had in mind. She's just an old acquaintance of mine. And she might kill you if she knew you were eavesdropping."

"But aren't we already dead?" the girl said as she put her hands behind her. Amidamaru looked at her quizzically.

"Um, who are you? And what's with the chains?" he asked, confused.

"I'm Chimerin, Silica's partner. And Hinjiko's little sister," she replied as her expression never changed.

"I see."

Unexpectedly, Acrein woke up and saw the spirits gathering outside of the room. The spirits were alarmed and immediately covered their mouths. "Hey guys, could you please lower your voice? Take your ghost talk outside 'cause I want to sleep," he moaned as he rubbed his eyes.

"S-Sorry, Acrein. We'll go out now," Hinjiko said with an apologetic smile and closed the door. Acrein stared at the door for a while then at the open window. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of a comet star. "Rago…" he uttered.

"The star of destruction," he heard Silica said from under her blanket. "Is that right, bro?" she asked, not getting up. "But isn't that supposed to show up every 500 years? Chaos will appear again?"

A brief silence filled the room as Acrein stared at Silica for a moment. Later, he moved close to her then shifted his eyes back to the window. "I'm not quite sure but… no matter what happens, we won't be separated," he whispered gently. Unknown to him, Silica smiled at his words and buried her face on her blanket.

"Yeah, right."

At the same time, Eri was already long awake and was now staring blankly at the sky, in fact, at the same star. Yoh and Anna, who are at the porch, noticed this too. The same goes for Ren who's at another room sitting on the window. All the shamans who saw this already knew what it means.

There will be another chaos.

Meanwhile, far away from the place….

The silver-haired girl smirked as she let out a small chuckle. "Seriously, he can't hold up anymore that he ran away. How funny."

"Is it even all right to let him off? I knew that bringing him back to life wouldn't be good so why?" a shadow figure asked who appeared behind her at the same time.

"What can he even do about it? I just did it to him so that he could amuse me for a while. Well, worry not. I need the trio here."

After saying this out loud, three persons suddenly appeared behind her, all kneeling on one knee to show respect. Two of them who are at the sides were adults and one who's shorter at the middle. They all chorused, "What is it, milady?"

"I want you to pay a visit at them together. Listen, a visit, I said. Don't go overboard, get it?"

The short one, which was the green-haired girl raised her head and asked, "My lady, I don't mean to be rude, but why not? We're not that powerless."

"Nope. You can play with them as long as you want, but don't overdo it. I don't want my precious follower to die because of 'her', got that?"

"Yes."

***XX***

**A/N: Yes, I'm finally done with the next one! Please leave a review on this chapter. I was excited to write this one. Yoh and Anna just seemed like a cute couple, right?**

**Next chapter is an action-filled one. Please look forward to read it! ^^**


	16. C14 Empty Shells

**Chapter 14: Empty Shells**

**A/N: Hi ya! I'm back with chapter 14! Thanks again to those who read, reviewed, followed and favorite my story. I appreciate all of your support. Now this is for you. Hope you enjoy reading and don't forget to drop a review, as I always say. **

**Just thinking, if this was an anime, the OP theme would be Ignite by Eir Aoi (Sword Art Online II) and the ED theme would be Tokohana by Nagi Yanagi (Black Bullet). Tehee… Sorry about my babbling.**

**Here we go!**

*****XX*****

It was a cloudy morning at Shinra Private School. Eri was walking at the school's hallway alone with some of the students staring and whispering at each other about her. She didn't mind though, she just kept looking in front of her and continued walking. '_Humans, really…'_

"E-ri~~~" a cheerful voice sang from behind her. She stopped on her tracks and turned around, only to see the cheerful, annoying, unavoidable Eurin Nishizaki running to her. She couldn't help but let out a sigh.

"What is it now?" she asked irritated.

"Say, would you like to take a walk or pay a visit for a while?" Eurin said as she put on her usual smile.

As cold and serious as Eri is, she immediately got a 'no' from her. Well, for someone as stubborn and hardheaded as Eurin, she doesn't easily give up and insisted.

"Why is that?" Eri asked, a bit irritated.

"Don't you like to go to Yoh Asakura's house? I'm planning to visit them so, how about you come with me? Please?" she pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

"I have no business with them and I already went there last night."

"Come on, let's go— EHHH!? Last night? You went there?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. I just went there to meet his crew."

"O-Oh, but…" Eurin paused and grabbed Eri's hand then started dragging her without any hesitation. "You must come with me because there's something I have to talk with him and I can't do it alone!"

"L-Let go, Eurin! You're not a boss to order me around."

"Tehee!" Eurin said as she stuck her tongue out. Eri's brow twitched but just sighed in surrender instead. She knew she couldn't get it inside this girl's head.

***XX***

"My, I shouldn't have come at Yoh's house in the first place. Anna totally made me her slave…" Acrein mumbled to himself while walking down the streets with teary eyes and drooped shoulders while carrying two plastic bags. Well, it's not really hard for him to carry just two bags but there's this arrogant guy in front of him named Ren, refusing to help him. "Could you at least be mindful that I'm right here having a hard time?"

"What's hard about shopping for that girl? Plus, I just happened to ran into you from my sister's apartment so don't drag me into your problem now," Ren replied as he had his hands in his pocket.

"You're not someone who can be considered as a reliable friend, aren't you?"

"Hey, I'm not as naïve as Yoh, get that? It doesn't mean that we're friends I should be helping him with all his business."

"_We _are friends?" he said disbelievingly.

"I'm referring to Yoh, not you, dummy!" Ren shouted at him.

"Oh good. 'Cause the thought of being friends with you hasn't crossed my mind even once."

"Hmp. Yeah, right. Like I'd ever be friends with a metal freak like you. You and that blue-headed idiot are no different."

A nerve snapped on Acrein's temple and retorted, "Freak, you say? What about you? You even look more of a freak with that stupid hairstyle of yours."

This time, a nerve also popped out from Ren's head and slammed his forehead against Acrein and glared at him. "Did you just say something about my own style?" he growled.

"Yeah, I did. Are all Chinese like that?" Acrein mockingly said.

"You. Are. So. DEAD!" Ren was about to jump at him when Acrein's sharp eyes saw something flash from on top of a building behind them.

"GET DOWN!" he exclaimed as he threw the bags aside.

"What?"

Before Ren could say anything else, Acrein immediately took out his Oversoul and swung it behind him, like he was preparing himself to hit a baseball. Ren's eyes widened in shock then swiftly ducked as Acrein swung his lance towards him. Just then, Ren realized why he did that when Acrein smashed an arrow that was fired from behind and was about to hit him.

"The hell were you doing? Are you trying to kill me!?" Ren yelled as he got up.

"Shut up! Is that how you thank someone who just saved your life!?" Acrein yelled back in annoyance. "Hmph, I shouldn't have warned you so that I could also hit you."

"Huh? Say what? Wait, something's weird…" Ren said to himself as he looked around them. "There's this strange, familiar presence around here."

"Y-Yeah, you're right," Acrein added as he looked around at the buildings. Then something flashed again from one of the buildings' rooftop. The two shamans immediately jumped away from each other as the arrow pierced the asphalt road. Then many arrows were fired again from above.

"Who the hell is doing this!?" Acrein exclaimed while in the midst of dodging.

The shooters suddenly stopped shooting and the two stood on their own spot, holding their guard up. Acrein kept looking at the rooftops while Ren checked their surroundings. Later, light footsteps are heard not from afar. The two whipped their heads at the same time in front of them and saw a glimpse of a man walking towards them. As the man gotten closer to them, they could clearly see his appearance. The man had a black hair and black eyes; he's wearing a long black coat with long collar that it covers half of his face. From what he looks like, he's about 17 or above.

"Who the hell are you?" Ren asked first.

"Just as I thought, you two are good. Watching you fight last night proves that you are really skilled," the stranger said calmly, ignoring their questions.

Realization struck them as he said that. "T-That means… you're the one behind what happened last night at that dark building?" Acrein asked as he pointed at him.

"Right."

Ren took out his spear and pointed it at him. "Hey, I asked you who you are. And what do you want from us?" he said impatiently.

The man scoffed before saying, "You seemed to be close with that Eri girl. Mind telling where she is now?"

Their eyes widen in shock after hearing him say Eri's name. "So the reason you attack us last night is because you're after her?" Ren said.

"Right. Now tell me where she is now. I don't like wasting time, you see."

"Then maybe you should tell us who sent you here if you lose," Acrein butted in with a smirk.

"Then I'll just have to force it out of you." He pulled out a strange-looking flute with a skull mark on its end from his coat's pocket. He placed it near his mouth, preparing to blow on it while the two boys watched him quizzically.

As he started to play a strange music, the ground behind Acrein rumbled then suddenly, a skeleton hand popped out from it and grabbed his leg. Acrein looked behind him and the skeleton raised its head, revealing its glowing red eyes. The hand strengthens its grip on Acrein's leg, causing him to grunt in pain. Then in a flash, the hand was cut off from the arm by an attack from Ren. As he was released, Acrein immediately activated Oversoul in a second ad smashed the skull with his lance. He shot the man a glare before stationing himself into a battle stance.

"Don't let your guard down. He might get us anytime," Ren warned.

"Shut up. I know that already. Sheesh, why does that every time we go back from an order, we always get ambushed? Now I just have to take Anna's scolding because the bags are destroyed."

The man smirked under his collar and played his flute again. The ground behind him cracked and many skeletons came out, each carrying different kinds of weapon. After changing his tone, the bony figures charged at them and another fight began.

***XX***

(at the inn)

Yoh headed towards the door as he heard the bell rang. As he opened it, Eurin's face greeted him. "Oh, Eurin, what's up?" he asked with a smile.

"Uh, I just came here to hang out. You're free this time, right?"

"Y-Yeah, I guess. Although Anna might give me training sooner or later…" he whispered at the last sentence.

"Huh? What did you say? Training?"

"Ah, nothing! By the way… huh?" He caught a glimpse of something black at the entrance of the inn. He peeked behind Eurin and he recognized Eri immediately. She had her back faced to them and her arms are crossed. "What's Eri doing here?"

"I just dragged her along with me. Um, can we go inside, please?"

"R-Right, come in. Eri, you can come inside too."

"I'll just stay outside. It's nice around here," she replied bluntly.

"All right."

***XX***

"Oh, so that's it. Eri got into a fight again last night and she stayed at your house because she's tired?" Eurin said as she sat down at the porch and leaned on her arms.

"Yeah, that's it." Yoh replied.

"Geez, she never really listens. Why is she always fighting with people? What's so hard about getting along with them?" She made a frown on her face.

"I don't think that's the case. All she's fighting are just thugs after all," Yoh sweat-dropped.

"Master Yoh!" Amidamaru called out from behind, which caught their attention. "Miss Anna said that you should go do your training right now," the spirit stated.

"I knew it," Yoh sighed as she let his shoulders drop. Then he looked at Eurin who was staring blankly behind Yoh, which where Amidamaru is standing. She blinked a few times.

"What's with this man who wears some kind of a samurai cosplay?" she asked.

"Ah, he's not doing cosplay! He's… eh?" he trailed off then looked at Eurin with wide eyes. "Eurin, you can see spirits?" he asked surprised.

"Huh? So he's a spirit? Ah, sorry, sorry! I mistook you for a mascot guy!" She scratched her head and laughed softly.

"So you're a shaman?" Yoh asked.

"Y-Yeah, I am. So I was right about you guys being a shaman too. 'Cause at the first time we met, you look a bit too… unusual for an ordinary human." She smiled. "Ah, but I'm not that great! All I do is block and get in people's way, you know that?"

"Uh…" Yoh uttered as he eyed her, confused. He doesn't really understand it much but he just nodded. "All right. Anyway, do you have something else to tell me?" he abruptly changed the topic.

"Oh yeah… about Eri. Actually, I wanted to thank you."

"W-What for?"

"It's because ever since Eri met you, she has started to learn how to talk more to people and get along with each other," she stated slowly as she swung her legs back and forth. Yoh could see passion in Eurin's eyes as she explained. "Eri really doesn't have anyone to talk with, you know. There's no one she could chat with, hang out with, and share with her feelings and interest other than me. People often call him a doll or robot for being too quiet, stoic and arrogant. But now that she met you and your friends, she has slowly started to openly express her true feelings."

"Eurin…"

She raised her head and faced him with a bright face. "That's why… thank you, Yoh!" she exclaimed. Yoh was a bit shocked and speechless for a while but then nodded and sent her his trademark grin.

"Don't mention it. But I'm not really sure if Eri really considers me as a friend."

"I surely remember that I only said we could be acquaintances, not friends," Eri's voice suddenly came from the corner of the porch, startling them. She was leaning on the wall with her arms crossed and also had her eyes closed.

"E-Eri! D-Did you just hear that?" Eurin asked nervously.

"I actually just got here. I never eavesdropped on your conversation. Although…" she paused and looked at Yoh, which made him to back off suddenly. "What's this about the 'friend' thing?"

"I-It's nothing! Never mind that!" he stuttered as he wavered.

"Um… sorry to interrupt but… Master, Miss Anna had been wai—" Amidamaru was immediately cut off by a sudden short scream from Yoh.

"Oh, crap! I forgot she's waiting for me! Sorry, girls but got to go!" he said with a grin then scrammed out from the porch and headed to the other side of the inn. Eurin watched him panicked then giggled while Eri just sighed.


	17. C15 A Rose Blooms

**Chapter 15: A Rose Blooms**

A certain light blue-haired kid went out of a telephone booth and sighed. "Man, I thought calling Pilica to greet her at least would make me feel lighter but asked for a souvenir instead. What was that? I just went here to hang out with Yoh and met a friend. Buying something right now is a pain for my pocket…"

He just shrugged that thought away then started to head back with his hands behind his head. As he walked for a few minutes, a loud cry caught his attention which came from inside a nearby restaurant.

"Geez, what's with this guy? Pervert…" a girly voice said which came from inside then the door slammed open and a guy with a pompadour was thrown outside and hit the ground face first. Then a woman slammed the door close again. Trey stared at the man before him, not really surprised.

"M-Man, such a waste… Just when I thought I finally found my Best Place," the man said as he slowly picked up himself from the ground then met Trey's eyes in a second.

"Flirting again? You really never learn do you?" the Ainu kid said in a bored tone then lowered his hands. "Don't you have anything else new in your sleeves?"

"Shut up! I have no other goal in my life than to find my Best Place, you know that!" the guy with the pompadour, Ryu barked as he stood up.

After a little more argument and talk, the two cooled off then headed back to the inn together. While they were walking, Trey couldn't take the silence anymore and let out a breath. "Seriously, I'm so bored! Does this day have anything interesting to happen?" he shouted out carelessly.

"What are you talking about? If you want to have some fun, then why don't you just…. Oh yeah, call that 'guy' right here? Just like old times, you know?" Ryu stated with a smile, giving Trey a hint that he's talking about a certain someone who always pisses them off, especially Ren because of his nonsense lame jokes.

"Now that I think of it, it's been 3 months since that big event, right? Hmm…. Tch, I gotta admit, I kinda miss that joker's jokes, even though they're lame. Now I feel like I want to beat the hell out of him if he were here…."

Ryu let out a carefree laugh at his statement. "Master Yoh is really the best in gathering comrades. That's why I respect him."

"Why are you suddenly bringing Yoh up?" Trey said, irritated.

"I'm just telling the truth."

"That's not–" Trey couldn't finish talking when Ryu suddenly stopped walking and raised his arm in front of Trey, causing him to stop walking too. Trey shot his head up and looked at him annoyed. "What now?"

"Don't you feel that presence?" he asked seriously as he turned his head around to look for anything suspicious. Then they realized that they were the only ones in the street.

"Hm… what presence?" Trey asked, not picking up anything interesting to his taste. That was until they both heard footsteps closing in. They jerked their heads in front of them and saw a figure walking to them. After a few steps, the figure stopped at a distance close enough for them to see his appearance. It was a woman…. No, a man really. About 17-18 years old in his height. He just looked like a woman due to his long red and a bit wavy hair. He's wearing a white coat with a brown vest, and black pants. He has a pair of noticeable glowing green eyes and he had a rose flower on his hand. Trey and Ryu blinked in curiosity at the man in front of them with many questions flowing in their head.

_'Is he a TV star? A rich Casanova maybe?'_

_ 'Is he a man or a woman? Or maybe another man with a Lyserg-like appearance?'_

_ 'He's probably a girl.'_

_ 'A cosplayer? Cross-dresser?'_

"Hi there, gentlemen," the red-haired person said in a suspiciously nice soft tone. Male voice.

Trey and Ryu's doubts and questions dropped down after they heard his voice. _'So he's a man.' _Still, they were a bit curious about how he's dressed. Why? He's wearing clothes that makes him look like a rich artist in public.

"My, isn't it such a hot day? It was cloudy a while ago and I was expecting a rain. Now I feel so hot in this attire," the stranger said out loud as he looked at the sky with a smile.

The two sweat-dropped.

"What's with this guy? He's a weirdo," Ryu whispered.

"Hey, still, you should not be wearing that kind of outfit! What are you, a foreign actor? No, wait, I don't remember seeing you in the TV once," Trey blurted out, pointing at him.

"Oh, really? I made you mistook me as an actor? Sorry, I really should have been more mindful at people's thoughts at me, right?" he said, smiling at them as he placed his hand holding the rose on his waist.

"W-What's with you? Are you an idiot?"

"But don't you look more like an idiot than me?"

A nerve snapped on the Ainu kid's temple. "Who are you calling an idiot, huh? You're just a cross-dressing stranger so choose your words carefully!"

"I'm wearing a male outfit, idiot," the man with the rose said, still had his smile on.

"W-What…?" Trey growled.

"Trey, calm down. He's a little bit weird, don't you think?" Ryu whispered to him softly.

"Yeah, he really is weird! Don't you think he's another 'Lyserg' guy here?" Trey babbled carelessly in an annoyed tone. This time, Ryu snapped.

"Hey, don't speak trash about Lyserg, you dolt!"

"I'm not speaking trash about him! I'm just saying that they're both guys with girly faces!"

The man slightly chuckled at Trey's statement in amusement but decided to cut their small quarrel off. "My, my, friends shouldn't be fighting, am I right…" he paused then looked at them with narrow eyes before continuing, "…young shamans?"

Trey and Ryu stopped and both returned their attention to them with shocked and serious reaction. "Shamans, you say? Could you be… a shaman too?" Trey asked, giving him a suspicious stare.

"My name is Rose Chenrey. I'm just here for a visit to a certain someone. I mean no harm. I just want to know where… this beautiful girl named Miss Eri Azuraki lived," Rose said. "This rose here is a gift for her from me."

"Eri? You mean that black-haired delicate gal? Could you be… her boyfriend?" Trey asked densely.

"Shut up, Trey," Ryu intervened then looked at Rose seriously. "If you're asking for Eri-chan's location right now, I don't think it's good to let you know," he replied sternly.

"What?" Rose uttered, his smile vanished.

"I don't like you. Even with that friendly façade of yours, I can sense your evil intentions towards her. Why don't you stop lying and tell us who you are?"

A short moment of brief silence stumbled between them. Trey then returned his gaze at Rose, giving him a look of suspicion. "So?" he said, waiting for him to say anything.

A second later, Rose closed his eyes and smirked. "I'm impressed you can sense my aura. I suppose you're not just ordinary ones."

"That's because I won't forgive anyone who dares to hurt innocent ladies, especially by tricking them by using their feelings towards others."

Rose's smile widened. "Then that means you won't let me see her for a while? What are you, her bodyguards?"

"I don't think that's it. I don't know if that Eri also see us as her friends but if you're going to do something to her, I won't let you."

"That's right," Trey added.

"Friends… Eri-san is not the type to have some friends ever since that incident…" Rose mumbled as he looked up at the sky, his expression blank.

"That incident?"

"So you're Eri-san's friends. In that case, I think I will let you have your last breath here. Lowlife people like you don't deserve to be on her side… my Master's side," Rose said as he looked back to them, an evil smile on his face as he raised his hand holding his rose flower and pointed it at them.

"W-What are you talking about? What do you mean by that?" Trey asked confused.

"Look, you don't even know about her so please do me a favor. If you tell me where she is now, I'll think about it and spare your lives."

"But what if we say 'no'?" Trey shot back.

"Then I will have to do this. Floris." A plume of light-blue flames formed on the top of his palm then brought it to the flower, creating a Spirit Control. Sparkling red dots of light surrounded the flower after Rose's spirit entered it. Trey and Ryu watched in surprise at him. Once more, Rose brought the flower to his ear and said, "I'll say this once more. Where is she now?"

"Go to hell!" Ryu yelled and activated his Spirit Control.

"Fine." With that said, Rose waved the flower to the side, leaving falling sparkling red lights on its trail. The two shamans gawked at the next thing that happened. Large thorns suddenly popped out from the road one after another in a row towards them, almost skewering them both. Luckily, only the edges of their clothes were skewered by the thorns.

"What is this? Rose thorns?" Trey blurted out, his heart almost jumped out to shock at the moment he was almost pierced.

"That's why… my name is Rose. As beautiful as its name, every rose flowers blooms at my presence. This flower is a significant of love. My love for my own dear Master," Rose stated dramatically as he waved the flower to the left side again then, a vine with thorns grew in a split second below Ryu, wrapping his feet then hang him to the air upside-down.

"Ryu!" Trey called out.

"W-Why you… Tokageroh!" Ryu exclaimed and took out his wooden sword from nowhere and did a Spirit Control. Seven white snakes materialized from the sword and cut the vines safely. The snakes then destroyed the thorns on the road for him to land and to free Trey.

"Nice move. But how about this?" Rose said then waved his flower upwards. A single petal fell to the road then many thick vines with bigger thorns emerged from the ground again and moved to Trey and Ryu's direction to crush them.

"Trey!" Ryu yelled.

"I know that!" Trey yelled back in annoyance and counter-attacked by creating rows of icicles in front of them. The two attacks crashed on each other, causing an explosion in the battlefield. The vines turned to ice and shattered into million pieces, making it look like stardust. Rose gasped in amazement at the scene and held out his hand to catch some falling pieces.

"So this is the power of an ice-user… Exquisite," he said as he returned his attention to the bearer of the attack who was glaring at him. He smiled in satisfaction.

"Bastard… that was a close one," Trey murmured as he wiped the dirt on his chin away.

"He nearly got me back there," Ryu commented.

"That was a nice, beautiful attack. Not a move wasted. Now I'm starting to like that power of yours," Rose said as he let the rose caress his own cheek, smiling at the Ainu. Trey clenched his teeth in annoyance.

"Shut the hell up!" Ryu shouted in anger then jumped into the air and lashed out several heads of snakes at the enemy. Rose's face twisted in annoyance and disgust as he waved the flower again to the side, controlling a vine to give a powerful whack to Ryu. Ryu was sent flying to a nearby building and was slammed hard against a wall, creating web of cracks on it. One down, one to go.

"Ryu!" Trey yelled out to his friend.

"Sorry, but I don't have any interests in ugly creatures like that guy," Rose said as his smile returned. "I wonder, how could you even be friends with that disgusting guy?"

"Shut the hell up, you son of a—" He wasn't even done talking when two thick vines wrapped each of his foot. The vines tightened its grip and slowly crawled up to his leg, causing him to grunt in pain as the thorns cut his flesh. He turned to look at Rose and shot him a killing look but it had no effect on him. Rose just smirked.

"This is the end for you, Ice boy. Thanks to you, I've got a fine beautiful fight today."

"What?"

"You should be thankful I'm giving you a beautiful ending." Rose raised the rose flower to the air and it glowed in red light. The ground below Trey trembled then it cracked open and out from it is a huge red flower about the same length as him. The petals of the flower had many small thorns too on the sides. Trey knew where this is going. He couldn't move because of the vines that are holding him still. There's no way he could escape.

"Damn this thing!"

"Sleep well, boy," Rose stated and waved the rose in front of him. The huge flower's petals slowly rose then closed together like a bud, trapping Trey inside in the dark. A grin crept on the red-haired man's lips as a scream escaped from the Ainu's mouth.

Rose closed his eyes and smiled in content as the whole place became quiet. The fight was over. The flower stopped moving and reopened its petals, revealing Trey's unconscious figure. Rose untied his feet and the Ainu fell on the ground, bathed in slimes.

"Too bad, I thought he was stronger than that," he whispered to himself in a crestfallen tone.

"GAH!" a scream suddenly came from behind him. He turned around and became surprised when he saw a short boy wearing a blue sweater, eyes widen in shock as he saw the unconscious Trey and the beat up Ryu leaning on a building's wall on the street side.

"T-Trey… Ryu!" Morty uttered shocked and nervous as he turned his attention to Rose. Rose smiled at him and walked slowly towards him, causing Morty to back off in nervousness.

"Hi, there, young boy," he greeted as he knelt down on one knee before him. "Say, do you know where Miss Eri Azuraki is?"

Morty gulped. "W-What do you want? And what did you do to my friends?"

"Oh, so they're your friends? I'm just playing with them for a while. Maybe I went overboard. But never mind that, can you please tell me where she is now?" he asked nicely, not in a threatening tone.

"N-No way! I'll never tell you!"

"I see. Then how about this?"

***XX***

**A/N: Hi again, everyone. Sorry for making you wait. I've decided that I will update this story's chapters weekly from now on. School has been so busy lately.**

**And if this chapter seemed a bit rushed, I'm sorry about it. I really suck at writing fighting scenes and I don't know how to slow down. T.T But please tell me what you think. **

**Don't forget to review! ^^**


	18. C16 The Rosarles Trio

**Chapter 16: The Rosarles Trio**

**A/N: Hi, I'm back with chapter 16. I'm glad people have read and liked my story. Thank you for your support. Sorry that I didn't update for a while. And also, I was thinking… maybe I'll make a small change to the story's title. **

**I don't really have anything to say except… enjoy reading this one! And don't forget to review.**

**Note: This chapter is very long…. Probably the longest of all the chapters that I wrote. Over 6,000 words. ^^**

*****XX*****

The time is 3:43 pm.

The dark blue twintailed girl named Silica Yuroku, who was Acrein's younger sister, stared at the clock blankly. She had been staring at the clock for almost 15 minutes just because of waiting for his brother to come home. After the minute turned 44, she clenched her teeth and went back to the work. In front of her was a table with different kinds of weapon on it, all made of metal. Daggers, claws, and shurikens. On the corner of the room were longer equipments such as swords, lances, and spears. And on the other side was a fireplace and a mallet on the floor. This is the house of the Yuroku siblings and all of the accessories here are made by themselves.

Silica took the mallet on the floor and went back to the table where a heated piece of metal was placed. She stared at it for a while before letting out a sigh as she raised the mallet and swung it down to the metal. The mallet made a nice 'ting' sound, which made her smile a bit. She repeated the process many times until a masterpiece was formed: a double-edged dagger. She then took the object and dipped it on a tub of water, cooling it down.

After the work, she let out an exhausted sigh before taking a seat on the couch of the living room. She looked at the clock again. It says 4:00. She sighed once more before pressing her cheeks gently with her palms.

"Good work, Silica," a young girl with long straight black hair in purple dress with noticeable chain shackles on her wrists and ankles suddenly appeared in front of her. The girl always had a sweet smile on her face, which made her look so bright.

"That idiot… why does he always come home late? Could he be hanging out at Yoh's house again?" Silica asked herself in an unconvinced mood. A short silence fell upon them. Then she stood up and grabbed her metal pinwheel toy on the table.

"Are you going to fetch him?" Chimerin asked.

"Of course. What else would I be doing now? Let's go, Chimerin." She motioned to leave with the spirit behind her. The two went out of the house then headed to the direction where the Flame Inn is located. However, they were unaware that they were being watched by a person standing on top of an electric post.

It was the girl from the night who attacked Eri. She had a long wavy green hair with shiny purple eyes. She was wearing a brown jacket, a light brown skirt and black stockings, and lastly a black cloak like Lyserg's, only longer that extends down just above her ankles. She had her eyes fixated on Silica who's walking down the road far away from her now.

A smile crept on her lips as she jumped to another nearby post and landed safely. She jumped to the next one and to the next one, eventually following Silica unnoticed.

"Lead me to where she is," she whispered as she chuckled softly.

***XX***

An explosion erupted in front of a tall building where a fight was held.

From the cloud of dust, Acrein Yuroku leaped backwards while covering his mouth with his arm. A skeleton with a large rectangle knife with a long handle also merged out from the clouds of dust and charged at him directly. He clenched his teeth in irritation then gave a powerful whack to the skeleton with his lance, destroying it. He then charged forward to a group of skeletons with his lance's blade sparking in blue lights.

"Real Force!"

Another explosion occurred. Skulls and other bone parts were flying everywhere due to the strong attack that Acrein gave. He watched the crumbled bones fall on the ground while panting heavily. There are now a few of the skeletons left. He felt a bit assured now but that was until the bones on the ground moved and formed back into its normal figures.

"Damn it. Is there even an end to this?" he muttered to himself.

On the other hand, Ren is currently running while dodging the infinite arrows that a skeleton is firing at him. Irritated, he jumped into the air instead of running continuously and aimed at the bony figures below him.

"Golden Chuuka Zanmai!"

Golden lasers rained upon the skeletons, instantly crushing them one after another. He landed on the ground swiftly as he gazed upon the destroyed road in front of him. As the place became clearer after his attack, he met the skeleton's controller's eyes directly. His emotionless black eyes made him piss off.

"I'm impressed you're able to come to this point so far. But I guess that's not normally surprising, Ren Tao," the man said without a trace of emotion in his voice.

_'Tch, so he knows my name.' _He stood up straight then glared at him. "What do you want with Eri? What's your purpose of attacking us last night?"

"Last night? It was just to know how strong you really are. Normally, I would have killed you back there if it weren't for her to save you."

"What?"

"If I were you, I would not stay long together with her. A weakling like you doesn't deserve to be on her side. On other words, you're not worthy enough to be her comrade."

Ren clenched his teeth in anger and charged directly at him. "Who the hell are you calling a weakling!?"

"Don't, Ren!" Acrein warned but a giant skeleton hand already sent a flying fist to the charging Ren and sent him flying to the side. But luckily, he saw that and took less damage by blocking it barely by his weapon. Acrein's eyes widen when a giant skeleton emerged behind the black-haired man, which looked like the one from the other night.

"Maybe I changed my mind. I'll be leaving now since my comrade finally had an idea where she is. I'll be leaving this one in your care." After saying this, he turned his back to them and ran away.

"Hey, come back here, you bastard!" Ren yelled as he got up.

"Leave him be! Let's take care of this thing first!" Acrein retorted and prepared himself.

The giant's empty eyes glowed in purple light then roared loudly, causing them to flinch. Then it looked at Acrein for a while who was expecting to be punched, whacked or pierced by it. But instead targeting him, it turned to look at Ren who was still struggling to stand up. Then it raised its arm, planning to pummel him down.

"Ren, look out!"

Ren clenched his teeth as he prepared to take it. The giant then swung its arm down to him while Ren braced himself to remain standing.

3…

2…

1…

*BAM!*

***XX***

The green-haired lady gasped softly to herself as she felt a chill ran to her spine as she was about to reach for her mug of coffee on the table. She froze for a while, staring at the mug with slight wide eyes. A moment later, she put her hand on her lap and looked outside the window with an uneasy expression.

"I wonder if Ren's doing fine…"

"Oh, sure he's fine. He's not the type to run into trouble for no good reasons," a pale-looking man wearing a black outfit behind her replied. She remained quiet for a while then went back to her coffee.

"Yeah, you're right."

***XX***

He didn't feel any pain at all. He was shocked. Instead of him being pinned down to the ground, he was shocked when the giant skeleton that was about to pummel him flew away in a short distance. He looked around to see who saved him and his shock doubled when he saw another giant skeleton standing a few meters away from them with red glowing eyes. On top of its skull stood a blonde-haired man wearing a lab coat.

"Oh my, looks like you guys are in a pinch. There's not a dull moment in this city, is it?" the blonde man said, his lips curling into a confident smile as he looked down to Ren and Acrein.

"Faust…" was all Ren could say. He wasn't expecting to see him here but he was thankful to what he did.

"A…a…a…" Acrein uttered as his eyes widened at Faust, then exclaimed in disbelief "ANOTHER SKELETON! WHAT'S WITH YOU GUYS WHO PLAY WITH BONES!?" as he pointed at Luke's piece of work which already had gone wild because of the attack that Faust gave. "Oh great, why does this guy has a short temper? That was just a small punch on the face and he's roaring now," he murmured as he let his shoulders drop down.

"So a shaman who also controls bones did this? Interesting," Faust commented as he gazed at the giant in front of him. "But… Eliza."

Faust's giant skeleton motioned to attack as it responded to the name. Luke's giant also moved back then charged at him in full speed with its claw in front. But before its claw could reach Faust, giant skeleton Eliza moved in such speed and sliced the skeleton in half with a huge knife with a long handle. The skeleton froze for a while on spot before it collapsed on the ground with a loud rumbling sound. Acrein's mouth gaped wide in amazement.

"There's no way a power at this level could beat my dear Eliza…" Faust stated as he brushed his blonde hair away dramatically.

"Such insane speed. So Eri's not the only one who can do it," Acrein mumbled, narrowing his eyes at Faust.

Because of his attention all focused on Faust, he forgot that Ren's still leaning on the wall clutching his injured arm. Faust immediately jumped off from Eliza and went to him. "I can take care of that injury."

"You don't have to…" he coldly replied.

"Ren… I can't believe you've been saved… twice," Acrein teased with a mischievous face, unnerving him.

"Shut up! I am—"

"But you're lucky that it's only minor injuries. Unlike those two." Faust then looked at Eliza and the skeleton showed them its other free hand then opened it, revealing an unconscious Trey and Ryu. Their eyes widened in shock at the sight of their comrades.

"Trey! What happened to them?" Acrein asked.

"While I was walking on the road, I heard some explosions and sensed a strange aura so I hurried and searched for it. But what I found was them and a messy street with lots of thorns and roses."

"Roses?"

"But put that aside. Let's get you guys treated and go back to Yoh immediately."

They couldn't resist and just nodded their heads.

***XX***

*ding dong*

"I'm coming!" Yoh answered as he ran to get the door and opened it. The person that he saw was none other than Silica with an annoyed expression. "What's up, Silica?" he greeted with his usual smile.

"Is my stupid brother here?"

"N-No, he's not back… yet," he replied, switching into nervous mode as he remembered that Anna told him to buy some stuffs for her.

"Yet?" Silica repeated, lifting an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Ah! It's nothing!"

"Did he come here?"

"Y-Yes… but, he went out for a while. Although I don't know where he went…" he lied. "Oh, you can come inside if you're going to wait for him."

"Thanks but no thanks," she replied coldly then turned around to walk away. "Geez, where did he go? Don't tell me he got into a fight again? It's already late and he's still not home yet."

"T-That is…" Yoh stuttered with a forced smile but he stopped and thought for a while. "Now that I think of it, Ren and Trey are also not back. They said they will come back early today. So is Morty."

"You're talking about your friends?"

"Did something happen to them?" Yoh said as he scratched his head. "And I don't have a good feeling about this…" _Wait, what is this uneasy feeling? Lately, Ren, Acrein,, and Eri were attacked by strangers. Did they…?_

"Why is she here?" Silica asked in an irritated tone which interrupted his thoughts. Yoh followed her sight and realized she was glaring at Eri who's sitting on the porch. He sweat-dropped.

"Ah, she just came here to pay a visit along with Eurin."

"Oh? I never thought you could be friends with that match head and mongrel. Tch, she pisses me off," she murmured as she crossed her arms.

'_That's quite rude! But you know, I never thought that I could be friends with a masochist like you too…' _Yoh inwardly said while putting up a fake smile. He knew Silica for a long time and often dislikes her for stalking him all the time even when he and Anna are going out. Not just that, even those people who are dating wherever. Her torture technique is also in his list of dislikes about her too.

"Sigh… Well, if he's not here, then I'm going to search for him. I've had enough of his tardiness," he heard Silica said and saw her already walking away. He couldn't help but sigh and was about to go back inside when he heard her again talk on the other side of their fence.

"Who are you?"

"S-Silica! It's you!" a boy exclaimed in a surprised tone. This caught Yoh's attention and went after Silica. As he turned around on the gate, he was surprised when he saw Morty being carried by a long red-haired man on his arms.

"M-Morty!?"

"Y-Yoh… help me…" Morty said, trembling on the hands of Rose, just like the time when he was carried by Faust too.

"W-What are you doing? And who is this man?" Yoh asked, eyeing Rose.

"Oh? These young kids here are also shamans? No wonder I feel such strong auras when we arrived here. Perhaps this is a hang-out place for them?" Rose asked, smiling at Yoh then looked at Morty. "Thanks for leading the way. Now I kept my promise."

"Morty, what happened?" Yoh asked.

"Sorry, Yoh. If I didn't tell him where you lived, he will kill me and Trey and Ryu… I'm sorry!" he cried.

"Trey and Ryu? What did you do to them?" Yoh yelled at Rose, his fists clenched in anger.

"I just gave them a nice peaceful slumber. I was having a hard time asking them since they won't answer me. Stubborn kids need to be punished, you know? But thanks to this boy here, my job became easier," Rose said as he patted Morty's head while Morty gulped in nervousness.

"D-Don't tell me… what about Acrein? What did you do to him?" Silica asked, clenching her fist and teeth.

"I don't remember that name. But if he's one of your friends, I think Luke already took care of him too."

"Why you!"

"Calm down, Silica!" Yoh said, causing her to stop. "What do you want from us?" he asked calmly at Rose.

"Let's see… is there an Eri Azuraki among you here?"

"Maybe. Depends on what you want with her," Eri's voice came from behind Yoh and Silica, surprising them. They jerked their heads to their back and saw Eri in her school uniform standing there, her arms crossed and her face emotionless as always. Rose's eyes opened wide upon recognizing her.

"Eri-san… you've really grown and more ladylike…" Rose said.

Eri twitched. "What do you mean by ladylike? And what's with the '-san'?"

"Y-You know him, Eri?" Yoh asked.

"Hell no. He's probably one of those crazy fans of mine in the school."

Rose chuckled. "I suppose you don't know me since we've never really met. But I do know you… more than anyone else." Eri looked at him puzzled. "I'm Rose Chenrey, by the way." He abruptly changed the topic.

"Then… what do you want?"

"I came here by an order from my master. It's to give an advice."

"Advice?" Eri repeated.

"Eri-san, how much stronger are you now from before? You know, from _that_ time?" Rose asked, emphasizing the word 'that'. Eri's eyes slightly widened as she realized he's talking about the tragic incident in her past. Nevertheless, he continued, "I know, you're very strong now. So what's the point of hanging out with these weaklings? Wouldn't that just result in sadness?"

A long moment of brief silence fell upon them. Yoh, Morty, and Silica also grew quiet, confused at what Rose is saying. "What is he talking about?" Yoh asked.

"What I'm trying to say is… you should not stay longer here anymore, Eri-san. Come with us, with our master. She's been waiting for you for many years…" Rose said, brushing Morty's hair who was about to faint of nervousness. But…

Eri scoffed. "What a load of crap."

"What?" Rose uttered, surprised. Then for a second, he felt a sudden wind passed through in front of him, blowing his hair away. He didn't know what that was until he looked down and realized that the short boy suddenly disappeared from his arms. "W-What?"

"Sorry, but you can't take him as a hostage," Eri said, catching their attention. She held up her arms and there was Morty. Yoh and Silica shrieked in shock.

"S-Since when did she took him?" Silica exclaimed in disbelief.

"She snatched Morty away from him? I didn't even see it!" Yoh added.

Rose was almost speechless, his green eyes widen in shock too. _'I saw it. She just disappeared from her spot and reappeared in front of me then snatched that little boy away. Then she went back there instantly. She really improved a lot than I thought.' _

While he was still thinking, he didn't notice that someone was walking towards him on the behind, watching him. But he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "That was a nice move, Eri-san. Now I know you're truly a worthy—"

*BAM!*

He couldn't finish his statement when a sudden foot forcefully kicked his back, sending him flying to the other side of the road and crashed on a tree. Yoh, Silica and Morty jaw-dropped as they watched Rose hit the tree with his face.

"O-Ow…" Rose muttered while rubbing his nose then turned around with an annoyed expression to see the culprit's face. "Who the hell was that!?" he yelled but froze when he saw a short girl with long wavy green hair standing in front of him, her purple eyes staring at him. She had her arms crossed and her black cloak swayed along with the wind. Rose could only utter one word.

"A-Alice…"

Another short silence followed as the wind blew again. The girl, which Rose called Alice, raised her right foot then…

*SLAP!*

"YOU DUMB-HEADED IDIOT!" Alice yelled as she slapped Rose across the face with her slipper, causing him to hit the ground again with his head. Alice then put her slipper back into her foot then glared at Rose. "Stop taking hostages if you can't even hold onto them for a while! You dumbass!"

Annoyed, Rose immediately stood up with a quick recovery and yelled back, "So that's the only reason why you kicked me!? You damn midget!"

"That's because you're being stupid! What's the point of taking things away when in the end, you just lose them!?"

"That was unexpected! What, can you even do what I can do at this moment?"

"I could do it better than you, girl-faced moron!"

"Why, you shrimp!"

The two shamans kept on quarreling, making their audience sweat-drop, unconvinced. Eri however, had no reaction and put Morty on the ground gently then eyed the quarreling people.

"Um, Eri?" Morty called but was ignored.

"I don't know you'd show up again, bird-girl," Eri said, looking at Alice. Alice stopped shouting and glared back at Eri then smirked.

"Oh, she really looks older now, isn't she? And she resembles Elliah-sama so much now that I can clearly see her face."

"Hm? Elliah? Who's that?" Yoh asked quizzically. Alice snapped.

"You imbecile! You don't have the right to call her that way!"

"Isn't she a noisy one?" Silica said in vex, narrowing her eyes at Alice. The green-haired gal then switched her attention to Silica with furrowed eyes, eyeing her like a tiger eyeing her prey. Silica was not taken aback of course. Then she looked at Yoh.

"These guys are pretty interesting," Alice stated as she crossed her arms. "Hey, you two, names."

"Huh?" they both uttered, confused.

"I'm asking you what your names are."

"Huh? Hey, if you're going to ask our names, state yours first, kid," Silica retorted.

"Kid!? I'm not a kid, you freak! I just look short but I'm 15, get it?"

"So she really admits that she's short. That's just funny…" Rose mumbled softly in a mocking tone but…

(#$% &^!)

…

"Anyway, your names?" Alice repeated, looking a bit calmer as she crossed her arms. Rose was now sitting on the ground, covering his bleeding nose.

"Okay. I'm Yoh Asakura. Nice to meet you," Yoh replied casually, putting on his trademark grin. Morty sweat-dropped.

_'Yoh, you're facing an enemy and you're introducing yourself normally…'_

"…Silica Yuroku," Silica mumbled.

"Eh? Cherry blossom (sakura) and happy (yuroku), you say? Man, I'm so jealous. Your names are so meaningful. I though, only have a normal name, Alice Vandheart," Alice said with an irritated smile.

"Then if you don't like your own name, why not change it? Why don't you name yourself 'midget' to make yourself meaningful?" Rose grumbled again softly but she heard it again, causing him to be smacked on the ground again.

"But look at that girl, she has such a nice figure. Long hair, cute face, and worst of all, she's tall. She pisses me off," Alice continued, her expression remained the same. Yet, Rose still intervened.

"Then why don't you do a daily healthy routine to make yourself tall, shrimp?" he murmured again and this time, Alice beat him to a pulp before returning her attention to Yoh and his friends. Rose is now all fours on the ground with his nose comically dripping with blood.

"Well, now that I know your names, I swear I won't forget them… even if you go to the other side any minute now…" Alice stated with an evil grin as she held up an open palm, revealing a black lotus flower with strange looking sharp petals and a head too. From what it looks like, Yoh could guess it's a spirit.

"Ah! They're really planning to kill us!" Morty shrieked as he fell on his behind. Yoh and Silica took one step backward as they waited for something to happen. Eri just stayed in the back.

"Silica, be careful. That girl looks dangerous," Yoh warned in a serious tone.

"I know that already. But where did your carefree attitude go?"

Already recovering from Alice's beating, Rose picked up himself from the ground and patted his clothes to get rid of the dirt, then put his hand on his hip. "Now that we're all here, is it gonna be a 3 on 3 battle?" he asked as his smile returned. When he said 3, the black-haired man with the flute who's named Luke had just arrived at the scene from behind them. Luke then stopped behind Alice on the right side while Rose is on the left side.

"If that's what our leader wants," Luke said calmly.

"Y-You…" Silica uttered, eyeing Luke.

"Oh? You're already finished taking care of those kids?" Rose asked.

"Who do you think I am? Those guys are nothing."

Alice scoffed. "Of course. That's the Rosarles for ya."

Yoh blinked. "Rosario?" he said as he didn't quite catch that. Alice felt like something hard just hit her head then glared at Yoh.

"I said Rosarles, idiot! It's our name! Well, never mind; since you're gonna die anyway."

"Hey, you in black! Where's Acrein, huh?" Silica yelled at Luke.

"Hm? Oh, you're talking about that boy with the lance? He's probably still alive now… if he could stop that skeleton with that purple-haired boy too," Luke replied.

"Don't tell me Ren is also—" Morty was cut off when he heard the sound of an Oversoul activated. He then saw Silica with two gigantic pinwheels dashed forward to Luke with a loud yell. Yoh called out to her name but she looked like she didn't hear him. Silica is now only a meter away from Luke then was about to hit him when Alice appeared in front of her with an evil grin and kicked her on the stomach. Silica let out a strangled cry of pain as she was sent flying back to Yoh.

"Silica!" Yoh exclaimed worriedly as he rushed towards her. Silica slowly raised her head and glared at Alice with her black eyes while the green-haired girl just smirked.

"Bastard…" she muttered.

"Why don't you just do us a favor and stay out of the way? All we wanted here is Eri Azuraki. We're not interested in you."

"Damn it… I can't go inside to the inn just to get my sword. What should I do?" Yoh said to himself.

"I can get it for you!" Morty exclaimed as he turned around to head back but he stopped and screamed in shock when a skeleton blocked his way. He immediately backed off and hid behind Eri.

"All right, Eri Azuraki, come right here and show me what you got. Stop hiding behind these ants and face me," Alice stated, waving her hand, telling her to come forth. Eri just narrowed her eyes.

"Eri, don't listen to them. Let us handle this," Yoh whispered. Silica grabbed the chains of her pinwheel and stood up slowly.

"I don't know what the hell you want with this match head here, but I won't let you pass through me!" Silica stated then threw her one of her wheels at Alice but it was blocked by a large thorn of rose that grew from the ground by Rose.

"Then I'll just finish you off!" Alice yelled as she pointed at Silica and the lotus flower on her other hand folded its petals then charged in a fast speed towards Silica, cutting the air on its way. Silica could only widen her eyes at the incoming attack when Eri swiftly made her move and sliced the flower with her sword in red.

"Heh, so you finally moved, huh, Eri? Black Bell!" Alice said and summoned two spirits then fired it at the two girls. Silica clenched her teeth as she pulled the chains of the pinwheel stuck at the thorn and hit the two charging spirits on the back. Alice gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"Oh, those two make a nice combo!" Morty gasped in awe.

"Alice, keep your cool. Master told us not to overdo it while confronting her," Luke warned.

"Shut up! I know that! But that girl keeps getting on the way…" she referred to Silica.

"Let me handle it. Floris!" Rose exclaimed and waved his rose flower to the side, creating rows of thorns on the road to hit them. Eri waved her sword to her side and set it on red fire before swinging it down and release a strong shockwave. "Red Fang!"

An explosion erupted in front of the inn, resulting lots of pebbles flying around the area. The young shamans waited for the spot where the Rosarles trio was standing at to become clear. Morty was even more amazed.

"Wow… what power she had."

"ERI! What have you done? If you blow up the inn, Anna's really going to slaughter me!" Yoh whined in panic mode. Eri turned around to look at him.

"True, but is the inn more important than your life? Besides, it's not damaged so rest assured," she replied matter-of-factly.

"My life depends on the inn's safety, so please don't do that again!" he exclaimed, sweating bullets in nervousness.

"Yoh, calm down," Morty said, sweat-dropping.

"Hush, there they are," Silica said seriously, making them silent. They returned their attention to the place where their enemy are and was surprised when they saw a huge rose bud on their place. The bud slowly opened and revealed the three shamans standing on the center, unharmed. It was obvious Rose made it so that they will be protected from that shockwave.

"A shield, huh?"

"That was damn close… I knew she's gotten better this time," Alice said with an impressed expression.

"You know you're just lucky that I was caught off guard at that time. But things won't be the same twice," Eri shot back, mimicking what Alice said when they were fighting in the dark alley on the other night.

Alice's grin became wider. "Then how about this? I wanted to see more of your power, Eri. Show me what you really got… to prove that you're really worthy to be on Elliah-sama's side."

"Elliah again…" Morty thought.

"Dark Chiming Bell!" Alice shouted out as she raised her arm on the air and a dark orb gathered on her palm. Yoh's eyes widen as he felt a very strong and dark aura in that orb. The orb gradually became bigger and bigger until it formed into a giant lotus flower with a head, just like a Black Bell.

"What the heck is that!?" Morty screamed.

"Such tremendous furyoku…" Silica muttered.

Luke and Rose took a step back in nervousness. "Alice, don't use that. Are you trying to kill them all?" Rose asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not," she replied as she grinned wider. The spirit opened its mouth and formed a purple ball of energy in it. They all took a step back, wondering what they should do. Eri clenched her teeth and prepared herself for it.

"Eri, don't do it!" Yoh yelled.

"Take this, you scumbags!" Alice shouted and fired the ball at them. Another explosion occurred in front of the inn, causing dusts and rocks to fly everywhere. The birds also fly away at the sudden tremor caused by the explosion.

Luke and Rose were both speechless as they surveyed the scene. It was still cloudy because of the dust and couldn't see a thing. Unable to see anything, Rose grabbed Alice's cloak and faced her. "Alice, did you really kill them?"

"As if she's gonna die of something as weak as that. Don't forget that that girl is a demon, Rose."

"Even so, what if Elliah-sama hears about this? She'll definitely kill you!"

"No… look at that," Luke said, catching their attention. They turned to look at the place in front of them. It was still cloudy but they could see something glowing bright. They squinted their eyes to have a clearer view. Then as the wind blew away the cloud of dust, surprise greeted them as they saw a glowing orange dome barrier surrounding the young shamans.

Yoh slowly opened his eyes and realized that he was still alive. Eri and Silica are also sitting on the ground, checking their selves while Morty remained standing behind them. Then he looked in front of them to see their savior. It was a girl with short light brown hair wearing a Shinra Private Academy uniform. Yoh could hardly believe what he saw.

"E-Eurin!?" he exclaimed in disbelief. The girl turned her head around and winked at Yoh with a bright smile on her face. It was definitely Eurin.

"Safe, are you?"

"You saved us?" he asked.

"You could say that… but there's also another person who saved you other than me," Eurin said as she pointed in front of her. Yoh looked at her puzzled then peeped behind her. He turned pale as he saw another girl wearing a black dress and a red bandanna on her head standing next to Eurin. He couldn't say anything due to nervousness except for her name.

"A-Anna…"

"What? Another girl? Is that boy living in a house full of harem?!" Alice asked, narrowing her eyes at the blondie in front of them. Anna had her eyes fixated on Alice. She looked calm though, while gripping the 1080 beads with her hands. On each of her sides were the shikigamis. Eurin lowered her hands and the barrier dispersed.

"Yoh, what happened… Oh no…" Morty muttered as he recognized Anna on the head. _Crap, this is gonna be war._

"Yoh," Anna spoke, causing her fiancé to flinch and back off in fright.

"Y-Yes ma'am?"

"Just what on earth is this ruckus about?" she asked in a normal tone. Yoh gulped. He didn't know if she's fully calm or just calm on the outside but super mad on the inside.

"T-This is…"

"Who the hell are you?" Alice asked, staring dagger at Anna.

"Me? I'm Anna Kyouyama, the fiancé of this boy here who you just attacked," Anna replied.

"Oh, fiancé, huh? Then what? You're gonna make me pay for what I did to your beloved boyfriend?" Alice said in a mocking tone. Yoh freaked out.

"I don't know who you are or what you want with us, but you hurt my fiancé, my costumers and most of all, my precious inn. I'll be giving you a chance. If you don't apologize and leave quietly…" Anna paused and glared darkly at Alice, making her back off at the sudden aura she's giving off. "…then I'll have no mercy and kill you all!"

The Rosarles flinched and took a step back as they were caught off guard. They could clearly sense the dangerous aura Anna was emitting around her. Yoh, Silica and Morty couldn't speak at her presence. Eri was unaffected by her though.

'_So she really is mad! I'm really gonna be so dead!' _Yoh whined inwardly. He never saw Anna this mad before.

With a quick recovery, Alice scoffed then smirked. "And what if I say I won't?" she said coolly.

"Then… can you face us all at once?" Anna replied and suddenly, their other comrades appeared behind Yoh. There were Faust, Ren, Acrein, and Trey and Ryu who already gained consciousness. All of them have gathered around as one. The Rosarles trio was speechless. They obviously couldn't handle them all at once. They were outnumbered.

"Fear not, Rosarles," a feminine voice suddenly echoed from nowhere, much to their confusion. Then out from the blue, a blue fire emerged from the air in front of the Rosarles then blazed brightly. Next thing that happened, a person emerged from the blue fire and stood up straight, then the fire vanished. It was a girl. She had a long black hair tied in a beautiful braid, and was wearing a white kimono. She was a real beauty in everyone's sight.

The Rosarles gasped in shock at the sight of their comrade. "Maria-sama…" Alice spoke in a polite tone.

"Is she another of them?" Acrein asked, his brows furrowed.

The girl, who responded to the name Maria, looked at Alice with her black eyes. She gently smiled at her then swiftly returned her attention to the group. "You've did enough, Rosarles. Elliah-sama is calling you now. Don't worry, she's not mad. I'm just here to pick you up." She then turned her attention to Anna who was staring at her. "I'm sorry for the trouble of my comrades here. But since it was an order, they just have to obey what they were told."

"I thought she was the Elliah they kept talking about," Morty said softly to himself.

"Let's go now," Maria said as she was about to turn around when Yoh called out.

"Wait up. Let me ask you this again. What do you want with Eri? Who's this Elliah you're talking about? Why did you attack us?" he asked in a serious tone. Maria smiled before turning to Yoh.

"That's so many questions. But I guess I'll just have to let you have a clue. Elliah-sama is interested in this girl named Eri Azuraki and wants her to be with our side. We are the Seven Pillars, Elliah-sama's vanguard," Maria stated and raised her sleeve up to her shoulders, revealing a mark below her shoulder: a sun with seven rays. Then Maria put her sleeve down. "The Seven Pillars are our lady's elite shamans who are supporting her to create a new world for shamans."

They all gasped in shock.

"Create… a new world? Are you for real?" Trey asked in disbelief.

"T-They… somehow remind me of Hao… Creating a new world? That's impossible. The Shaman Fight is already over. No one has been decided to be the Shaman King to obtain the Great Spirits. What person could possibly do such a thing just by using her power?" Ren asked.

"Elliah-sama has no need for the Great Spirits. After all, they're just… another worthless trash. Eri Azuraki's more important than the Great Spirits."

"Why her!?" Yoh yelled.

"Because she holds a unique power that no one ever has. She's a demon with insane power," Maria replied, emphasizing the word 'demon'.

"Huh!? You dare call Eri-chan a demon?" Ryu exclaimed.

"Silence, all of you," Eri stated, causing them to stop. She then looked at Maria who's smiling at her. "I don't know who you are, but do you think we'll believe all of your nonsense things sputtered out?"

"It's not actually nonsense. We'll make it happen. One more thing. As possible as you can, please avoid getting into too much danger, Eri-san. Master is doing everything what's best for you, you know. Then we'll be going ahead. Please make sure to decide carefully. Elliah-sama's waiting at Sirius Island. Good luck then." Maria said and snapped her fingers then the blue fire from earlier appeared again behind them. The Rosarles went ahead first then Maria. But before she went inside the portal of fire, she looked at Anna then winked at her then went inside. Anna's eyes widened as she saw the black beads on Maria's neck. Those beads look just like here 1080, except they are black and feel… evil.

As Maria entered the fire, the flames vanished and the whole place grew dead silent. They were speechless at the sudden twist of event. They are still processing what Maria just said seconds ago.

….

"What was that all about?" Silica asked, but another long moment of silence was the only reply.


	19. C17 So Many Questions, So Little Time

**Chapter 17: So Many Questions, So Little Time**

**A/N: I got the chance to update today. Here's chapter 17 and I hope you enjoy reading it. I realize I only have little time to use the laptop so updates will be slow. But I won't abandon my stories. Just saying. ^^**

*****XX*****

Everyone has gathered around in the inn. It was already night. All of them are sitting in the living room quietly which made the situation kinda awkward for them.

Faust is currently wrapping Trey's arm with bandages, Ryu is leaning on the wall while sitting with his eyes closed, Ren is also leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, Silica is also treating Acrein's wounds, Eri is on the window standing, while Eurin is just sitting on the short table, watching them with an uneasy expression. Yoh is sitting opposite to Eurin while Anna is on the other side of the table, looking at them all.

"I never thought it would lead to this," Anna spoke, breaking the silence. "First, Eri is attacked, next is Ren and Acrein, then Trey and Ryu. What on earth are those guys after?"

"That's… what we don't know. Strange things are suddenly happening in this town. No… it's happening to us," Trey said.

"But what actually irritates me…" Anna paused then glared at Yoh, making him flinch and gulp. "…is that you being careless that you've almost destroyed this inn."

"I'm sorry… but it was Eri's doing though…" Yoh murmured in a guilty tone.

"Excuse me, you were saying?" Eri asked, making him freak out.

"Ah, n-nothing! Wait, now that I think of it, why did you show up late back there? Even with all that noise…" Yoh asked, looking at his fiancé. But Eurin replied instead.

"Because at first, all we heard are just people shouting. Anna became annoyed and requested me to put up a barrier around to block off all the noise. But after that, we heard a loud explosion and then went outside," she stated with a sheepish smile.

"Wow, you're quite a unique one," Acrein said, a bit impressed at Eurin. Unnerved, Silica suddenly pulled the bandage hard, wrapping his arm very tight, making him scream in pain. "W-What was that for!?"

"For being unmindful," she replied with closed eyes.

"Well, let's drop the useless talk. What's up with those weird shamans really? They assaulted us whenever we go, and then showed up and talked about creating a new world. That Maria girl even said that they are a group and this Elliah acting as their leader," Ren stated seriously.

"What are they called again? Seven Pillars? That's an appropriate name for a group like them. Now they totally remind me of Hao's lackeys and the X-Laws too, them talking about god-like stuffs and all," Trey added.

"Who are you talking about?" Acrein asked.

"Huh? You don't know of them?" Ryu said, confused.

"X-Laws and Hao's group are widely known by the participants of the Shaman Fight. Hao is famous for his evil plans on obtaining the Great Spirits and creating a new world for shamans only. X-Laws however, are known for their holy powers and archangel spirits and their belief in justice. They are against Hao's plans and believe that all evil must be banished away from the world," Faust explained emotionlessly while still wrapping Trey's arm.

"Eh? Such idiots. What's with those crazy ideas? Are they some wanna-be God crews?" Acrein said in disbelief.

"How come you don't know about them? Are you really that dense when it comes to people around you?" Ren asked.

"Shut up! It's because Silica and I didn't participate in the Shaman Fight. We have our own reasons."

"Is that so?" Yoh asked as he leaned on the floor with his arms. But they were suddenly startled when Anna slammed her hand on the table.

"Enough with the past talk. Let's think about what those Seven Pillars talked about," she said loudly, causing them to shut up. Then she turned to Eri who was on the window. "Eri, do you know anything about them? Like maybe you met them before but forgot about them or something related to you or your family?"

The room stared as they all waited for her reply. She lowered her head and closed her eyes before talking. "I don't know them. And it's got nothing to do with my family. No… I… actually don't have a family." Her voice softened at the last statement. They were surprised to hear that.

"I see…" was all Anna could say.

Eri's head shot up when something seemed to come back into her mind. _'No, maybe I do know them. Those people from that night…' _Then, a fragment of her memories passed in her mind. She was kneeling on the ground, surrounded by a wall of fire. A long silver-haired girl was in front of her, standing with her white silky dress flowing along with the wind. There were also seven figures behind her, all kneeling to her respect. Those bloody red eyes were focused on her like the girl was staring at her very own soul. Red eyes that are tainted in blood of the lives of people who are killed by—

Her eyes widened in fright as she immediately cut off her thoughts about that. She didn't want to see what happened next. She sighed softly in relief before putting her attention on the people in front of her.

"Anyway, we can't just leave behind all what happened like that. We have to know what they're plotting this time," Ren spoke up.

Then they heard Anna sighed. She closed her eyes then crossed her arms like she's thinking about something. "Maybe this is going to the way what I thought…"

"Huh?" they all chorused.

"I also have something to tell you all. It's very important knowledge to you, so don't turn your ears away from me for a while." She took something from under the table and slammed it on the table, showing it to everyone else. It was a very old book, torn and tattered. It instantly made them curious to know what it is. Anna then spoke again, "This is a list of spirits and creatures in the earth or afterlife that are considered as rare, powerful, and divine. As a Itako, we all need to know every detail about each of those spirits."

"Oh…"

"And as you know, some ancient writings like this one can only be read and understand by us. And this book… is not just an ordinary thing. It responds to the spirits which are written on it by some kind of spell. And this…" she opened the book and flipped the pages until she reached a page where something is drawn on it. They all gathered around her and looked too. Their eyes opened wide in recognition upon seeing an image of the Spirit of Fire on it.

Anna continued speaking, "Since the Five Elemental Spirits is holy, it also appears on this book. Not just them, but there are lots of different kinds of spirits too." She moved onto the next pages and saw a picture of Shamash.

"But what's the point of telling us all this, Anna?" Yoh asked innocently.

"Because…" she flipped into more pages until she stumbled on the one she's looking for. The image of the lady in white with a pair of wings on its back, carrying a sword. They all stared at it curiously.

"An angel?" Eurin asked as she tilted her head.

"Its name is Valkyrie. It's considered to be at a level higher than a god-class spirit. We lack of information about this so we don't really know a lot about it. And look, doesn't this part look a bit different than the rest?"

"Hm… are its eyes normally like that?" Silica asked as she narrowed her eyes. Unlike the other eyes of the pictures of the other spirits, its eyes are glowing in red.

"That's a sign that it's been called from the afterlife or from its resting place. Apparently, it's been stolen."

"Stolen?" they all uttered. "Wait, like how Hao stole the Spirit of Fire?"

"Exactly. But there's more to it. Just as you all know, only Itakos can call forth spirits. But we can't call those which are powers above our limits. If we try to summon them, we'll end up draining all our furyoku. Valkyrie is an example of them."

"Valkyrie has been stolen and owned by someone now. And my conclusion is, this might have something to do with the Seven Pillars. This must be their doing," Anna stated lastly.

"But… why them, Anna? Are you sure about it?" Trey asked.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure… but…" she trailed off, her brows furrowed as she recalled the black-haired girl in braids named Maria back there. She was sure that she was an Itako like her too after sensing an incredible aura from her, which felt the same as hers. She also saw her wearing black beads on her neck just like her. "That girl proves it enough," she muttered.

"Anna…?" Yoh said, puzzled by her expression.

She snapped out of her thoughts then closed her eyes as she went back to her calm self. "Nothing." Then the group grew quiet again.

"Where is Sirius Island located?" Eri suddenly asked out loud, catching their attention. Her face was blank.

"Sirius Island? Isn't that the place where Elliah is waiting, like Maria said?" Trey said.

"Eri, don't tell me… you're going there?" Yoh asked with a hint of disbelief and worry in his tone.

"It could be a trap."

"I don't give a damn. I just want to know where it is. Even if it's true, I'm not going to let them do what they want. Especially what they just did…" she said as she clenched her fist.

"You're going alone?" Anna asked.

"If you're saying you want to come with me, then you better not. I'm going to end it with my own hands."

"Eri, what are you saying? You saw how strong they are. Even with that strength of yours, you can't take them all at once," Eurin cut in to the talk.

"Stop acting all mighty and strong when you can't handle something as that, idiot. Just because you have some strange powers doesn't mean you can do anything," Ren added. Eri's eyes narrowed in irritation at him. She decided to talk back.

"Maybe I should let remind you to do the same, Ren. I know you're also like that in the first time you joined the tournament. Acting all cool and strong, when you just ended up losing your pride."

"Say what?" he mumbled as he gripped his weapon tight, unnerved.

"I may talk big and selfish sometimes, but there's nothing that I said I failed to do so. I handle things on my own and I don't need any help. I don't count on people for their aid, unlike you who's still weak… and lame."

"Who are you calling weak… you damn wench!?" Ren yelled and was about to lash out at her when Yoh held him back. Eurin also moved immediately and went in front of Eri, stretching her arms out for cover.

"I won't let you do anything to Eri!" she stated with furrowed brows.

"Shut up and stay out of the way, you mongrel!"

A nerve snapped on the light brown-haired girl's temple. "Who are you calling a mongrel, shark head!?" she shot back, annoyed.

"Is there any other mongrel here? And also, let go of me, Yoh!" he yelled in anger as he struggled to escape from Yoh's grip but Yoh held him tighter.

"Calm down, Ren! Eri didn't mean what she said, right Eri?" he said with a sheepish smile as he looked at the dark-haired girl. She stared at him for a while before looking away.

"No, I did."

Yoh turned off and froze, freeing Ren, then the latter was about to jump at her and scratch her face when Anna's loud voice boomed, interrupted their fight.

"Enough! You're stupid, useless childish fight is getting on my nerves!"

"Then where is that island found?" Eri asked again, her voice stern.

"To be frank, I don't know where it is. But even if you'll know, I suggest you not to go there 'cause it would be suicidal for you."

She kept quiet for a while, her brows furrowing at them all. Later, she scoffed and looked to her side then headed for the door. "Whatever. I'm going out." With that, she went out and closed the door behind her, leaving everyone silent for a while. Eurin then slowly turned to Ren and gave him a piercing look.

"If it weren't for you, she wouldn't have go out like that, you son of a shark."

"Say that again and I'll kick your ass, you mongrel of a dog."

The two growled at each other and looked like they were about to jump at each other and cat-fight, but looked away with a 'hmp' arrogantly, causing their watchers to sweat-drop. Anna stood up from her spot and headed to her room too. But before entering it, she spoke, "Let's think about this tomorrow. I'm going to bed now." Then she went inside and slid the door close.

Acrein sighed then put his hands behind his head and lied down on the floor then stared at the ceiling. "That was one hell of a lesson," he said.

"The scale is too big for me," Silica said with an uneasy face.

Yoh looked down at the floor with a serious expression. He clenched his fist as he tried to recall what the Rosarles trio and Maria said to them. He also recalled the scenes that he saw in his dream. Everything was like a puzzle to him. _'But… is Hao involved in this too? Even though he's no longer here, I can feel he's still…'_

As time passes, they split up and went to their own rooms, giving it a rest.

***XX***

**Re-view~~, please. ^^**


	20. C18 Decision

**Chapter 18: Decision**

**A/N: It's been a while since I last updated… I just got lucky today so I updated this chapter as fast as I could. And as I see, no reviews for the last chapter T.T Well, anyway, on with the story… though this sucks a bit, I think. I think there may be a few errors.**

**Anyway, please read and review.**

*****XX*****

It was still night. It was midnight, actually. The moon is full and is shining brightly in the sky, lighting up the neighborhood. The surrounding was peaceful and quiet, for everyone was sleeping, except for the dark-haired girl with red eyes. She was still outside of the inn, sitting on the roof, gazing at the stars. Her face was blank and calm, unlike earlier. She felt at ease, just by looking at the twinkling dots in the dark sky. While doing so, she felt nostalgic as a short memory came into her mind.

_'Say, does a shooting star really grant wishes?' a younger version of her asked a light-brown haired boy beside her. They were sitting under a tree on a small hill, stargazing._

_ 'I'm not really sure… but when people saw it, they all bow their heads and make a wish quietly. It's just probably a saying though…' the boy replied with a smile. She looked at him, puzzled._

_ 'You mean… you don't believe in things that can grant wishes?'_

_ 'No, it's not like that. Er, how should I put it…'_

_ 'Look, one just fell from the sky,' she told him as she saw a shooting star passed by. She remained staring blankly at the sky where the star just passed. The boy stared at her blankly too._

_ 'Won't you make a wish?' he asked._

_ 'No… I don't need to.'_

_ He looked at her, confused. That was until she whipped her head to her side, looking at him with a slight smile._

_ 'Why would I wish for anything else other than being with you at this moment?' she stated. He was stunned for a while but later smiled and patted her head._

_._

_ 'So we're the same then, blacky.'_

_ 'Why are you calling me like a dog?' she said, pouting. He just smiled and chuckled softly._

_ 'I just love that hair of yours.'_

Her flashback was cut short as she shook her head a few times before looking down to her feet. "Black, huh?" she murmured to herself in a soft voice then rolled a few strands of her black hair and held it up. The cold night wind blew gently, letting her hair flow along with it. The crystal bells on her hair made a tingling sound, then she put her finger down.

"Forget about that. I should know more about those morons who visited us," she told herself then thought for a while. She thought about the group called Seven Pillars and recalled everything they said, their faces, and powers. She wanted to know more about them.

'_Now that I thought of it, only one person could know many things in the world. Maybe… I could ask her but… it's been a while… and I don't like the idea of calling her now. I don't like to see or at least hear her voice at a time like this.' _She thought to herself as she bit her nail.

But at her situation, she had no choice but to call her. She just had to bear with it. She stood up and jumped down the roof then headed for the inn's door. She went inside quietly, not wanting to wake up everyone.

She headed to a corner of the living room, where a telephone stood. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the object. "Perhaps Anna will let me borrow this for a while… Hmm. Not like she can do anything about it," she said to herself.

She picked it up, then dialed a number. She pressed it in her ear, waiting for a response. She waited for a while that she grew impatient.

*beep, beep, beep*

Finally, someone picked up. "Hello, how can I help you?" a young woman's voice came from the other line. Eri's eyes narrowed at the voice. It sounded sweet… very sweet that it crept her out. '_Really, she still hasn't changed.'_

She closed her eyes then replied, "Hello, it's me."

A long moment of silence came from the phone. She was getting impatient. Then…

"HAH! Is this you, Eri-chan!?" the woman in the other line exclaimed in disbelief that it almost made her deaf.

"Could you please lower your voice? Everyone's asleep," she said in an irritated tone.

"Oh God! I can't believe you're still there! I didn't even expect you to call me after a long time. Oh my, how are you doing right now? Are you dropping by at our house? If you will, please bring us souvenirs, Eri-chan!" the woman squealed. Her eye twitched in annoyance and she almost broke the phone due to her gripping it tight.

"Shut up, old hag," she spoke coldly, causing the line to be filled with silence again.

"Ow, that hurts, Eri-chan. You still hadn't change at all," the woman said in a sad yet gleeful tone.

"Drop the useless talk. I'm not here to chat. This is business."

"Hmm… alright. What is it?"

"Do you know about a group of shamans called the Seven Pillars?"

The other side of the line became dead silent. Eri guessed that she might be shocked or surprised with the sudden question.

"What's with the sudden question, Eri-chan?" the woman asked in a calm tone. "You know about them? Like, you met them?"

"Yeah, kinda like that. Now answer me."

"Wait. Did they say something strange to you? Like a message or something like that?"

She was surprised at that. The person sounded like she already knows them very well. "Mm… fine, I'll just explain it to you. These last few days, we've been recently attacked by strange people. At first, there were 3 of them then another one showed up. The latter said that they were members of the Seven Pillars or whatever."

"Anything else?"

"They even had a symbol of their group. A sun with seven rays. They said that they also had a master named Elliah and told me that she had a message for me, saying that she's waiting for me at a place called Sirius Island."

"…So it really is them… This is all unexpected."

"So?"

The woman on the other line cleared her throat before speaking again. "All right. I don't really know much about the Seven Pillars and their members, or their powers. I actually only heard them as rumors from different shamans. They are believed to be a group of seven elite shamans with fearful, incredible, terrifying powers. And this Elliah is an enigma. No one has seen her face before except for her followers. She mostly sends her followers to murder or kidnap people and left strange messages to them. Although some say that she takes the appearance of a girl in dress."

"…Some of the descriptions suit them right. But are they really that special? I only see their members as a midget, a cross-dresser and a musician, along with a pretty face."

The woman laughed, taking that as a joke. "Really? I never know that. But wait, there's more. It was also said that they made contact with the Star Team during the Shaman Fight three months ago."

"Star Team?"

"You know Hao Asakura and his followers, right? The one with the Spirit of Fire?"

"Who wouldn't know such a show-off jerk like him?"

"Would you believe me that they almost had an all-out war? They were nearly killed by Elliah's group."

Eri kept quiet for a while, shocked. "You mean…"

"They're much stronger than Hao and his followers. I think Elliah is a naughty kid, unnerving him just by talking smoothly. And… Hao almost can't do anything about it. Hah, kids are really interesting these days."

"From what it sounds, those two must be the same in some ways. But how do you know all of these anyway?"

All she heard as a reply was a soft chuckle from the woman, then she said, "I have my own source." Another brief silence followed. Then the woman spoke again. "By the way, what do you mean by 'we' earlier?"

"Huh?"

"You said you were attacked by them. You said 'we', didn't you?"

"…."

"Eri-chan, so you've met friends?" the woman asked in a soft tone. She became silent, speechless. "I guess… meeting and talking with people can't be avoided. But are you fine with it?"

"…Not really. They're all idiots anyway."

The woman laughed. "I see. Well, I guess it's time for goodbye. It's still midnight and I'm still on my work."

"Wait. One more thing. Do you know where Sirius Island is?" she asked immediately.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I do. It's a mysterious island on the Northern seas. It's an island where many Holy Spirits lived. But it's hard getting there since a barrier is surrounding it so that humans can't get near it. Only few shamans also entered the place but never came back alive."

"Is that so? Thanks for the information. I'm hanging up."

"Be careful, Eri-chan. If you ever get into trouble, don't worry 'cause I'll come for you in a second," the woman said in her happy tone.

"Whatever," she replied lastly then hung up. She let out a breath before going out again. She didn't like staying inside after what happened.

She was now on the roof again, looking at the stars. "South, she says…" She looked at her right hand and clenched it. "No matter what happens, I won't let it happen again. Never…" she said to herself with serious eyes. Finally, silence wrapped her around, making her a bit ease. Only the sound of the wind blowing and the trees swaying were heard.

However, her mind was interrupted when she heard something from behind her. It was a footstep, she thought. But before she could turn her head around, a blade slashed through the air and stopped right only a centimeter away from her neck. She was not surprised, to say the least. She already knew who it was.

"What are you doing?" she asked calmly. She didn't even bother to move an inch, not because of the blade on her neck.

"You know, all this time, I don't trust you nor like you a bit. You're all weird and suspicious. So why don't you stop fooling around and tell me what you really are?" the person said in a cold tone. Her guess was right. It was Ren.

"Can't you really tell? I'm a girl, a shaman like you. What else could I be?" she answered and sounded like she was mocking him. "Plus, I'm not hiding anything. I'm just… a normal person." She was a bit hesitant to say the last phrase.

"With that attitude and power of yours? I don't think so. Ever since you came here, we get attacked and hurt. You smell dangerous and suspicious."

"So you're saying that it's my fault?"

"I'm just saying you're not someone I can fully trust and believe. Especially when Yoh is starting to get close to you."

"So you're jealous of me and Yoh? You want me to be with you instead?" she replied shamelessly, which caught him off guard and turn red.

"W-What are you talking about? That's not what I mean! Anyway, answer my question! Could you be one of them?" he abruptly went back to the main topic, which made her sigh.

"Are you that dumb? Those idiots said that they're after me. And I don't know them. How could I be one of them? And lastly… it's not my thing to get people involved in my own problems."

A short moment of silence fell upon them.

"Are you going to keep that on my neck?" Eri asked.

"I have one more thing to say and remember it very well. If you will ever do something to Yoh and his friends, like betrayal…" Ren paused and lowered his head, letting his hair shadow his eyes.

Eri became a bit curious and finally turned around to look at him. Just then, Ren raised his head and shot her a glare before finishing his sentence. "I will never ever forgive you," he coldly stated. She tried to hold back herself from being surprised. Then she felt a strange feeling inside her.

For a while, they remained staring at each other. Eri first averted her eyes and looked back in front of her. "Don't worry, I won't do anything to your friends. And if I ever do something like that, I won't forgive myself too. That's also one of the reasons why I don't have friends…" she told him, her voice softened at the last statement. '_No, actually, until now, I still haven't forgiven myself after all that happened.'_

Ren was slightly confused and surprised by her words but he just swallowed the question that he was going to ask. He lowered his spear and stared at her for a while. He then ignored the questions in his head and looked up to the sky, as more stars came out. "If that's what you say then… I'm with you," he said. Eri's head shot up and looked at him confused.

"Huh?"

"After all, being against Yoh is a pain in the neck, since they won't listen to me at all. Now are you contented?" he asked out loud. Eri then finally understood what he was saying when she heard Yoh's chuckle from their side. She turned to her right and saw him sitting on a tree's branch.

"I just thought it would be better if it will be all of us in a journey again," Yoh said, putting up his trademark grin.

"Yoh, you don't mean…" Eri started but was cut off when Ren scoffed.

"Actually, it would be worse, especially with more annoying people in the team," he said in an irritated tone. Eri's eyes grew wide in shock when she realized that more people are standing behind them. There were Trey, Acrein, Eurin and Silica. Strangely, Faust and Ryu were not there.

"What's the meaning of this?" Eri asked in disbelief.

"We don't like you going out for a trip without us. It would be more fun if we're all together!" Trey said with a grin.

"Besides, I still didn't return the favor to that musician. Mind helping me, Eri?" Acrein said, also grinning as he pressed his fist onto his palm.

"Wherever you go, I'll always be tagging along," Eurin added with a childish smile. However…

"Tch, even though I agree with Ren, why do I have to be with that match head?" Silica grunted in annoyance, having the opposite reaction to them all.

"That won't do. Besides, you're not just going to leave me behind, right, Silica?" Acrein asked with a smile as he patted her shoulder, but received a breaking twist in his arm from her, causing him to cry comically in pain as he held his broken arm.

"But still, majority always win so there's nothing I can really do about it," Silica said as she crossed her arms.

After recovering from shock, Eri turned to Yoh and shot him a glare. "Yoh, what did I say about this?" she growled.

Yoh scratched the back of his head nervously as he laughed softly.

"But Eri, even if you say you'll handle things on your own, we can't leave you at that. Friends always help each other, don't you think?" he asked sheepishly.

"And when did I say that we're friends? Maybe you forgot that I said that if you're going to do something that's out of my list, I'll kill you," she stated darkly.

"That won't do. It's not Yoh who made them do this. It's me," Anna's voice replied. They were all shocked when they saw her sitting on the branch beside Yoh. Yoh almost fell down from the tree because of her sudden popping out. Nonetheless, Anna continued, "They have an important mission to achieve in Sirius Island. Since you're going there, it would be better if you all go together. Plus, it would make the job easier to handle."

"Do I look like someone who would help a worker do his job?" Eri said irritated, narrowing her eyes at her.

"You know what I mean."

"I'm not giving this a—"

"Eri, no matter what you say, you can't make us turn back. We've already decided on this," Eurin cut her off, giving Eri her cheerful smile.

"Yeah, so drop the cool act and let us help you," Trey added.

"I'm going to give those Seven Sticks a good beating soon as we get there," Acrein said grinning as he immediately recovered from Silica's feint attack.

Eri's already gritting her teeth in anger. Her fist clenched so tight that it made the roof crack slightly. She didn't want this, being helped by some people she just met. Their small friendship even annoys her. But considering how many they are, they'll surely won't hear her out and tag along. Thus, she let herself calm down and sighed loudly with her eyes still scowled, then turned away from them. "Do whatever you want, blockheads."

As they thought they succeeded in convincing her, they grinned to each other secretly. Ren was still not pleased by it but still sticks to them. Silica just remained standing with her eyes closed. Anna stared at the group before her, thinking what kind of idiots they are. She never really thought of them agreeing to her plan earlier.

"Now it's decided, we will leave in the morning tomorrow," Yoh stated to his friends and they all nodded.

"Great. Now I'm outta here," Trey said, yawning as he turned his back at them. Ren just scoffed as he walked away and jumped off. Acrein then made his leave and Silica followed. Eurin first went to Eri and patted her shoulder.

"Eri you better get some sleep."

"Leave already. You're not my mother to tell me what to do," she replied harshly. Eurin just smiled and walked away too, jumping off the roof and went back inside.

"Well, in the end, it all worked out," Yoh said as he stretched up his arms.

"I'm heading back first," Anna told him then jumped off the tree and landed on the ground safely, then walked inside the inn without turning back. Now it's just Yoh and Eri left.

"Are you mad at me, Eri?" Yoh asked, his tone seemed calm.

"You want to know how mad I am right now?" she replied without looking at him. Yoh sweat-dropped. "Well, it seems that words don't work on hardheaded idiots like you anyway. I'm going in now," she added before leaving. Yoh then followed after her.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the inn…

"My, they really look cute together, don't they?" the rose-haired spirit in a kimono said wonderingly as she had her hands clapped on the right side of her face. She had a wide smile and the spirit beside her could clearly see hearts coming out from her.

"Who are you talking about?" Amidamaru asked with his eyes narrowed.

"Who? It's Young Miss, of course. She and that Ren really make a good match," she added.

"…" the samurai just kept quiet as he just stared at the woman before her, unconvinced. "But Eri-dono always shoo people away, don't she?"

"Maybe she just doesn't like those kinds of boys."

"Could she be a tsundere?" he said with a smile as he looked to the side but freaked out when Sakurazen appeared in front of him with a scary face, having her sword raised above her.

"What did you call her?" she asked in a dark tone.

"Nothing!" he exclaimed as he raised his hands.

***XX***

A certain long-haired brunette is walking down a forest quietly. His expression was serious as he still thought about what's going to happen soon. "Elliah… what are you planning to do?" he asked softly to no one particular as he looked up at the sky. Just then, he felt his body weakening and almost fell but quickly regained his balance. He face-palmed. "Man, I was so focused on those things that I hardly had enough rest…"

Tired, he continued walking until he spotted a nice spot for a sleeping place which was under a huge tree with hanging branches. There were no grasses under it, only the brown ground. An unconscious smile spread on his lips as it somehow reminded him of the past when he and his followers sat around a small fire.

He walked towards that place and sat down then leaned his back on the trunk. After a while, he sighed as he looked up to the sky again, his face becoming calm and at ease. '_Perhaps I should refresh for a while and drop those thoughts first…'_

"Feeling better now?" an echoing voice suddenly came from his side. He felt someone walking and stopped right beside him. He felt warm all of a sudden when the person beside him suddenly emitted a very warm aura. He slowly turned his head to his side and saw a girl… with her body glowing in orange light, which made her look like she was on fire. She had long fiery hair that extends up to her waist and blue eyes.

"Don't just show up all of a sudden like that," he said as he looked in front of him.

"You seem lonely," she said emotionlessly then to his surprise, she sat down beside him and put her hand in front, then a plume of fire suddenly burst out from the ground, like a bonfire. The small area around them lit up due to the fire made by the girl. He seemed a bit pleased.

"Thank you," he uttered.

"If you wanted some warmth, why didn't you call me immediately?"

"I'm just tired…"

Silence…

"Say…" he spoke to the girl, catching her attention. "Why did you tag along with me? You know who I am and what I did, right?" he asked as he looked at her in the eyes. But he only received a blank stare from her.

"Because despite what you did to everyone and everything, you don't seem like a bad person after all," she replied, her expression is still the same. "And I've been lonely ever since I lost my previous companion until you came. I just wanted to have a new master as a friend."

"Me? A friend?" he said, unconvinced.

"That's what I think of you."

The fire flickered. A short silence fell upon them. He was surprised by her last statement. A friend? No one has said that word to him. No one has tried to approach him in the past as a friend, even his followers. Well, except for Opacho who shows no fear towards him and treats him like a real friend.

He scoffed then smirked. "You are not too bad, after all… to be my partner, Mira," he said.

"Inflamira," she stated, correcting him. "And you're not too bad to be my master, Hao."

"You should call me 'master'."

"If I'm starting to get used to you."

He just smiled and leaned his head behind him then closed his eyes, waiting to fall into a slumber.

*****XX*****

**A/N: Hmm… I guess you may be wondering already. Yep. Hao has a new spirit partner now, in this story, and the name's Inflamira. In this story, he died at his last fight with Yoh but was revived by… ahem, you already know maybe, well, Elliah. :3 Kino did mention in the last few chapters that Hao lost all his powers and the SOF united with the GS. Which means… he is a lot weaker now, but is still stronger than anyone (a little). (Hahaha) Hao also has an important role in the story.**

**Okay, enough babbling. Please review!**


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